AEI Closes on National Trust Building

WASHINGTON, DC-The American Enterprise Institute has closed on its purchase of the National Trust for Historic Preservation building at 1785 Massachusetts Avenue NW. The 63,800-square-foot property traded for $36.501 million, brokered by the CBRE Nonprofit Practice Group. CBRE's Manny Fitzgerald, Bobby Meehling, Andy Wimsatt and Bill Prutting, Jr. (formerly with CBRE) represented the National Trust in this transaction. CBRE is negotiating tenancy for a new headquarters for the Trust as well.

Several parties looked at the building, some of which considered converting it back to multifamily use or to a hotel use, Fitzgerald tells GlobeSt.com. "At the end of the day it made the most sense for a non-profit like AEI to use the building as its headquarters." Even in this current tenant-friendly market, he adds. "If you think about it, most of these non-profits have been here for 50 years and will be here for another 50 years at least. Why should they throw away thousands of dollars every year on rent when they can own the asset?"

The building was originally a luxury apartment formerly known as the Andrew Mellon Building and McCormick Apartments. From 1922 until 1937, it was the home of millionaire industrialist and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. As a condition of sale, both the exterior and historic interior features of the building will be protected by a permanent historic preservation easement, to be held by the National Trust.