WASHINGTON, DC-Last year, LaSalle Investment Management acquired Senate Square, a luxury apartment house in Downtown DC, for $162.3 million--or $375,741 per unit. It was one of the highest recent per unit comps to trade in the District.

LaSalle has a long history of investing here, dating back to the 1980s when the firm worked on the Union Station renovation. Senate Square is one of several current holdings the company has in the DC area, and it is examining the local landscape with the goal of acquiring more.

In general it is in acquisition mode: it plans to invest roughly $2.5 billion nationwide in core real estate assets, a sum that includes some leverage, JLL managing director Wade Judge tells GlobeSt.com. Of that amount, approximately $300 million will be invested in the DC area, hopefully within the near future. The company’s next investment will likely be an office property, Judge says, adding that nothing is under contract. “We are looking for core investments, such as Senate Square,” Judge says. “These would be good quality, well located, fully-leased investments.”

LaSalle rarely invests with a partner, preferring to take 100% interest in a property, Judge adds, but it is open to the possibility especially in the District and New York. “Markets like those it becomes oftentimes necessary to partner and we are willing to do that,” he says.