90% of Bowen Building Sells for $119M

WASHINGTON, DC-Vornado Realty Trust has committed to buying the remaining 90% interest in the Bowen Building, a 231,000-sf trophy office building from Real Estate Capital Partners for $119 million. The Paramus, NJ-based REIT became partial owner of the class A site at 875 15th St. NW back in 2003 when it acquired the Kaempfer Co. and its real estate portfolio.

The 12-story property, which has a proposed 2006 assessed value of $78 million, underwent a redevelopment valued at approximately $100 million and remerged late last year. Situated in the city’s central business district two blocks from the White House, it is a product of a joint venture between Kaempfer and Real Estate Capital Partners. The property was originally built on the corner lot in the 1920s and designers of the redeveloped structure, Hartman-Cox Architects integrated façades of the earlier building into the new facility.

Before construction was completed, law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP committed to 34% of the office space, or 69,500 sf. Today the property is 83% occupied by the firm and one other tenant under leases that expire in 2015 and 2020. Space at the Bowen Building, according to Spaulding & Slye Colliers International’s Skyline Review for winter 2005, leases for about $39 per sf.

Vornado will pay for the 90% interest in the Bowen Building by forking over $63 million in cash and assuming an existing debt of $56 million. The transaction is on schedule to close sometime next quarter.