JBG Smith Chief Commercial Officer Dave Ritchey is leaving the company after nearly a decade as one of the REIT's top executives.

Ritchey is set to retire from his role at the head of the Bethesda-based REIT’s leasing team at the end of this month, the Washington Business Journal first reported. JBG Smith confirmed his departure to Bisnow.

“We are grateful to Dave for his many contributions to JBG SMITH since our formation as a REIT,” a JBG Smith spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Dave helped build and guide a deep team of professionals that were responsible for a number of important achievements, despite the challenges faced by the industry over the past few years.”

The spokesperson also said that he had been commuting from his home in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the past three years.

With his departure, JBG Smith Executive Vice President of Leasing Brian Cotter has been tapped head the leasing team, according to the WBJ.

Ritchey joined JBG Smith in 2016 to help fuse the Vornado/Charles E. Smith and JBG Cos. leasing offices along with their merger, which became official in July 2017. JBG Smith’s year-end regulatory filings show Ritchey signed a new contract in February 2024. That contract was set to go through July 18.

Ritchey’s departure comes as several other JBG Smith leasing team members have left the company, including Kai Reynolds, Amy Rice and Lauren Greco, the WBJ reported. The company reported a $60M net loss during the fourth quarter, nearly double that of the same period last year.

LEASES

A wine bar that had lived in D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood for a decade is reopening as a wine shop in another part of the D.C. area. Flight Wine Shop opens Friday at JBG Smith’s The Grace, one of a pair of 300-foot-tall residential towers it opened last spring at Northern Virginia’s National Landing neighborhood. Owners Swati Bose and Kabir Amir are set to host wine classes, tastings and meet-and-greets at the 2K SF shop.

SALES

Data center developer BlackChamber Group purchased a 65-acre Manassas site that was marketed as a by right data center development opportunity, the Washington Business Journal reported. The local private equity firm paid $190M for the site at 10230-10251 Harry J. Parrish Blvd., which works out to $2.9M per acre. The WBJ reported that the seller appears to be affiliates of Chantilly-based Pruitt.

MILESTONES

Jubilee Housing broke ground on an 18-unit housing project for formerly incarcerated individuals this week, the nonprofit developer announced. The project is a redevelopment of the former King Emmanuel Baptist Church, which opened in 1907 at 2324 Ontario Road NW in Adams Morgan. Financing came from sources including low-income housing tax credits, first-mortgage financing from Cornerstone Fund, LIHTC equity from Red Stone, a long-term subsidy contract from D.C., subordinate financing from DC Green Bank and equity from the developer.

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Douglas Development’s 107-unit office-to-hospitality conversion in Georgetown is open, it announced this week. The Canal House at 1023 31st St. NW is under Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio Hotel. The property features 105 guest rooms and two attached townhouses. Douglas broke ground on the $38M project in August 2023.

PERSONNEL 

McKay Elliott is joining Lincoln Property Co. as a vice president of leasing in D.C. She joins the team led by Adam Biberaj and Merrill Turnbull and will report to Lincoln Senior Executive Vice President Brandon Ernst. A release from Lincoln says Elliott will play a “key role in overseeing leasing strategies, prospecting, deal tracking, reporting, and negotiations.” She has more than 15 years of CRE experience and comes from Akridge, where she was most recently an assistant vice president.