ROCKVILLE, MD-Federal Capital Partners acquired One Preserve Pkwy here for $61.25 million at the end of December.

The seven-story, 183,667-square foot trophy office tower is about 92% leased to eight tenants including government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, which is occupying the majority of the building through 2019. The building is located in the Preserve at Tower Oaks development.

FCP acquires only one to two office buildings a year--and technically this purchase falls into its 2013 bucket--but the way the local trends are moving it is likely to focus more on suburban office than core products in DC's Downtown in the coming year.

"This year we are being very calculated in our approach," FCP Senior Associate Erik Weinberg tells GlobeSt.com.

"We will be looking for nice properties that may not be Downtown but rather approximate to where an employee base lives. Downtown assets have been so heavily bid, both for core and deals you'd think would be value add, that we are having a difficult time approaching these deals and fitting them in our strategy."

In general, suburban office has been beaten down to the point where many believe it is at the bottom of its cycle. Still, problems with the asset class remain, namely the high vacancy rates in many submarkets. For that reason FCP intends to carefully vet these assets, Weinberg says.

One Preserve Pkwy, for example, was chosen in part because "it had credit-worthy tenants with no lease expirations in the near term."

The Preserve at Tower Oaks is an 84-acre, luxury master-planned mixed-use development. Bill Collins and James Cassidy of Cassidy Turley represented the seller in the transaction.

Instant Insights /

FCP Takes Rockville Asset for $61M; Eyes Suburban Office

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