US Parole Commission Takes 36,000 SF in NoMa 

WASHINGTON, DC-The US Parole Commission has inked a long-term lease for 36,438 square feet at Sentinel Square I/90 K St. in NoMa. The government agency will occupy a portion of the first floor and the entire third floor in the 412,661-square-foot, 12-story building.

The Department of Homeland Security’s US Customs and Border Protection recently inked 85,000 square feet on a portion of the second and sixth floors and took all of floors four and five. The two deals combined bring the occupancy of the building to nearly 30%.

Joel Bereleson and Sean McNeal of GSA and Neil Levy and Julie Rayfield of Studley represented the tenant in the transaction. Thomas Finan, with Trammell Crow Co.’s Mid-Atlantic office, repped the owner, Trammell Crow Co., and joint venture partners Crow Holdings Realty Partners IV L.P. and Cottonwood Partners. 

The agency is relocating into the District from Bethesda, MD, according to Finan. Sentinel Square I/90 K St. is the first of four planned phases containing 1.3 million square feet of class A office space. The building is seeking LEED Gold certification. It is yet another transaction bolstering the District’s real estate market, Jones Lang LaSalle’s research director, Scott Homa, tells GlobeSt.com. 

At the same time, the government’s growing presence may become a double-edged sword for landlords as it becomes more aggressive in its terms. Deal terms are getting incredibly aggressive, Homa says, with the Bureau of Labor Management leasing space in Southeast for just north of $35 per square foot and GSA leasing short-term space in NoMa for $28 per square foot. 

"Compared to recent federal leases such as Housing and Urban Development at 425 3rd St., SW; Health and Human Services at 370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW; and the Internal Revenue Service at 77 K St., NW, all struck in the mid-$40s, those deals seem like a thing of the past," he says.