Tech Road Building Goes for $27.3M

SILVER SPRING, MD-The 236,000-sf office complex at 11800 Tech Rd. has been sold in a $27.3-million deal to Corporate Office Properties Trust. Located in Montgomery County’s North Silver Spring submarket, the acquisition is in line with COPT’s goal of expanding its presence in the Washington area suburbs. The seller, Commercial real estate company The Goldstar Group, made a substantial profit on the property just two years after having acquired it for $19.5 million.

“The acquisition is an important strategic step for the company, as it represents our first acquisition in Montgomery County, one of the most affluent counties and one of the strongest office markets in the nation,” COPT president and COO Randall M. Griffin says. “Montgomery County is situated between our core holdings in the Baltimore/Washington Corridor and Northern VA.”

The Tech Road structure, which has a 2003 assessed value of nearly $16 million, was built in five phases between 1968 and 1989, and underwent a $1.8-million renovation that was completed in 1999. Converted from a flight simulator manufacturing facility, the building is predominantly for office use, but about 20% of the structure is reserved for tenants’ industrial purposes. About 95% of the space in the building is occupied with tenants including BioCore Medical Technologies, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and the US Department of Defense. And Comcast Cable Communications Inc. keeps its headquarters in a 90,000-sf space at Tech Road. “It’s a good profit yield for our client Goldstar, and COPT is getting a very stable cash flow,” Dek Potts of Advantis/GVA tells GlobeSt.com. Advantis Real Estate Services Company and GVA Worldwide have a partnership, and the Advantis/GVA team of Potts and partner Jim Meisel served as the sole broker in the transaction. “There’s no rollover in leases for four years. It’s a great deal for everybody.”