WASHINGTON, DC-Non-profit State Service Organization has renewed a 237,848-square-foot lease at 400-444 N. Capitol St., NW, also known as the Hall of the States Building. Mindy Saffer, Richard Lane, Eric West and Richard Siegel of West, Lane & Schlager Realty Advisors negotiated the 15-year deal on behalf of SSO.
The asset, two interconnected offices that total 55,000 square feet, is owned by Mebar Realty Holding Trust and is close to full occupancy. Besides SSO, other tenants include C-SPAN, CNBC and Fox News. To keep SSO, Mebar offered a cash concession to be used for the term of the lease, Saffer tells GlobeSt.com.
SSO did search for new space, including buildings in the nearby submarkets of NoMa and the Capitol Riverfront. Ultimately it decided to stay at its existing location in large part because the early lease restructuring allowed the organization to pass savings to the 92 member organizations subletting the space from it two years before the lease was due for renewal.
This was a significant factor for the 36-year-old organization founded by the Council of State Governments, the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Governors Association. It was formed specifically to aggregate costs and pass savings on to its member organizations.
Some of these member organizations lease only 500 square feet, which means as individual tenants they would have little leverage, Saffer says. For the member organizations that sublease the space from SSO, the savings from the new lease will average between 3% and 14% depending on the tenant’s size. “In general they are paying 20% less than the average office tenant on Capitol Hill,” Saffer says.
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