WASHINGTON, DC-The US General Services Administration has acquired Columbia Plaza, the 511,500-square foot home to one of the Department of State’s agencies. The seller was a partnership between Normandy Real Estate Partners and Westbrook Partners. A GSA spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com that it traded for $99.8 million, including associated closing costs.

The motivations behind the sale is actually more intriguing to DC’s commercial real estate community than the actual trade itself, which priced largely where core assets here have been trading. The department has occupied the 15-story building, located in Foggy Bottom at 2401 E St., NW, since 1992. GSA opted to buy the building instead of renewing the lease to save costs, it has said.

Even in the District it is rare that the government actually buys a building, Eastdil Secured’s John Kevill tells GlobeSt.com. “It may well be that this is part of a broader strategy to save costs,” he says. The trade is also interesting to the local community because it signifies—they hope—that contrary to public perception, the government is not on a path to cease all spending on real estate.

“Despite the rhetoric of the government reigning in spending, it’s clear that certain agencies like State and the Department of Veterans Affairs still face very clear mandates to expand the scope of their services, and hence, their real estate footprints,” Scott Homa, research director for Jones Lang LaSalle, tells GlobeSt.com. “We’ll continue to see favored agencies and potentially regulatory agencies as well continue to make prudent decisions to position themselves for the long term.”

The asset last traded in June 2004, when the JV acquired it in an off-market sale for $118 million, GlobeSt.com reported in an exclusive at the time. The deal marked not only the first acquisition for the JV, but it also signified Normandy's first foray into the local market.