DSC Partners Pays $167M for Familiar Virginia Portfolio
The 1.64-million-square-foot portfolio was previously owned by First Potomac Realty Trust, which DSC founders and partners Douglas Donatelli and Nick Smith founded in 1997 and ran until 2015.
WASHINGTON, DC—Locally-based DSC Partners, LLC has added more than 1.6 million square feet of office, flex and industrial properties in Chesapeake and Norfolk, VA to its Mid-Atlantic portfolio in a deal valued at $167 million.
The 1.64-million-square-foot portfolio was previously owned by First Potomac Realty Trust, which DSC founders and partners Douglas Donatelli and Nick Smith founded in 1997 and ran until 2015.
Massachusetts-based Government Properties acquired First Potomac Realty Trust in October 2017 for $1.4 billion.
The Norfolk-Chesapeake portfolio consists of a combination of 15 single-story office, flex and industrial properties and represents an opportunity to immediately establish a dominant position in a high barrier to entry market, DSC Partners states.
“We made our first acquisition in the Hampton Roads region in 1999 and have always enjoyed being part of the strong and growing market. We are thrilled to be buying back these properties, with which we are intimately familiar, and believe these are an ideal opportunity for our growing company,” said Donatelli, co-founder and partner of DSC.
Donatelli adds that the portfolio fits squarely into the company’s model for strategic acquisition across the greater Mid-Atlantic region and allows it to re-establish nearly 20-year old relationships with brokers, employees and tenants.
Tenants across the portfolio include the US Government, Sentara Healthcare, General Dynamics, First Data Corporation, Leidos, Siemens and Citigroup.
DSC cited the region’s economic strength comes from the presence of Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest military installation and the Port of Virginia which is the world’s largest deepwater port and a vital part of the US Navy’s infrastructure. The majority of the portfolio is located in the Greenbrier/Crossway submarket, where market vacancy rates range from 4.7% to 6.9%. The overall portfolio has averaged 91% occupancy over the last 10 years and 93% occupancy the last five years.
“The performance across the properties is unusually strong with long-term government tenants,” says DSC partner Nick Smith. “The entire portfolio enjoys strong occupancy and we don’t see that changing for the critical niche use in a high-demand area.”
DSC Partners has retained Transwestern to provide property management services and the team led by Perry Frazer and Pat Mugler of CB Richard Ellis of Virginia Inc. will be leasing the properties.
In May of this year, DSC Partners made headlines when the firm and partner Wafra announced it would acquire 1250 Eye St., NW in Washington, DC on behalf of an institutional investor. The 12-story, 178,000-square foot building traded for $100 million.