Is the Waterfront DC’s New NoMa?

WASHINGTON, DC-It is a familiar story for the District: Institutional investor, only interested in a few select markets for real estate investment, gloms onto a building here that is fully leased by the safest of tenants, the DC government. The only variation here in this oft-repeated storyline is the setting: this time the trade happened along DC’s waterfront.

The buildings in question, 1100 and 1101 4th St., SW at Waterfront Station, sold for $365 million to USAA Real Estate Co. Cassidy Turley’s Bill Collins, Paul Collins, Drew Flood, Jud Ryan and James Cassidy represented the seller, Waterfront Associates, LLC. The buildings were developed by Vornado/Charles E. Smith and Forest City Washington. The retail component of the 637,546-square-foot project, anchored by Safeway and CVS Pharmacy, is approximately 90% leased, Collins tells GlobeSt.com.

This sale puts the waterfront area of the District solidly on track to follow another emerging submarket’s footprints--NoMa, Collins says. “It is interesting, in fact, that Washington hasn’t built out its waterfront. Most cities in the world with a waterfront tend to use that natural amenity, but for whatever reason we haven’t.”

Delivered last year, 1100 and 1101 4th St., SW are LEED Gold certified. They are the first phase of a project that will total 2.5 million square feet upon completion. The plan calls for the delivery of approximately 1,000 new residential units and up to 140,000 square feet of retail. The DC government, which is the project’s anchor tenant, is occupying 500,000 square feet, housing the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and the Office of Planning there.