1776 Massachusetts Ave Trades for $45M

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WASHINGTON, DC-The asset at 1776 Massachusetts Ave., NW, has traded for $45.5 million, or $498 per square foot. ELV Associates, a privately held real estate investment and management firm based in Boston, acquired the 91,312-square-foot building. Paul Hanafin and Richard Siegel, principals with WLS Investment Services Group, represented the seller, JOSS Realty Partners LLC, and were the sole brokers in the deal. In 2005, JOSS purchased the building for $34.5 million.

The building, located on a key street in Dupont Circle, is 96% leased to such tenants as Boston University, the Brookings Institution and Johns Hopkins University. The asset is notable because it is one of the few privately owned, multi-tenant office buildings in the city, Hanafin says.

However, its main claim to fame is its location on one of Dupont Circle’s most recognizable and, some would say, coveted streets. Some buyers wind up paying as much as $900 per square foot for buildings here, Hanafin, tells GlobeSt.com, in part because this part of the city is seen as a de rigueur address for foreign missions and embassies, think tanks and nonprofit organizations. Institutions that make their home on this street include the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“There have been sales over the past couple of years on this block that were in the $900-to-$1,000-per-foot price range,” Hanafin says, although a more typical basis point is $600 to $700 per foot. Seventeen-eighty Massachusetts Ave. traded for $920 per foot, but when the renovation was factored in the all-in price was $1,000, he says.

The foreign mission for the government of Trinidad and Tobago acquired 1714 Massachusetts Ave. for $860 per square foot, Hanafin says. “In short, anything that becomes available on this block trades very dearly.” Hanafin says the new owner of 1776 Massachusetts Ave. has no plans for major renovations.