One of the first glimpses into what the payoff looks like from post-pandemic, bargain-basement sales is here. And it's a compelling one.
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A Ballston office building that sold for a steep discount two years ago has sold for nearly double its previous sales price.
Piedmont Realty Trust bought the 189K SF office building at 4075 Wilson Blvd. for $52.7M, the Atlanta-based REIT disclosed in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The previous owner, a partnership between FarmViewVentures, GreenBarn Investment Group and Rithm Capital, took the property in 2024 for $27.6M all cash, which was less than 30% of the 2019 sales price.
Two years ago, the property, which was built in 2005, was 52% leased. It is now at 83%, according to Piedmont’s SEC filing.
Piedmont’s acquisition, which closed Thursday, was an all-cash buy, FarmViewVentures founder John Wolf said Monday in a LinkedIn post. He said the joint venture didn’t plan on selling “this early” but that its “business plan was nearly complete.” Over its two years of ownership, the FarmViewVentures partnership filled the retail space, completed a second-floor amenity center, refreshed the sky lobby and main lobby, changed parking operations and executed 10 leases, he said.
“This represents the first (‘round trip’) institutional sale of an office building in the region post covid market reset,” Wolf said.
In a press release announcing the sale Monday evening, the sellers said they invested $6M in capital improvements to the property during their ownership. The release also lists select office tenants: defense contractor Systems Planning & Analysis, software company Nalej Corp. and cybersecurity company KnowBe4. It also identifies ground-floor retail tenants Sweetgreen, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Grazie Nonna and Pinnacle Bank.
Piedmont didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment, but its filing details the opportunity it sees at 4075 Wilson.
“The property is surrounded by food and beverage and retail options, and is a five-minute walk to the metro,” Piedmont said in the SEC filing. “The Ballston submarket continues to serve as a hub for defense and cybersecurity tenants. The building is two blocks from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Office of Naval Research (ONR).”
Piedmont owns six office buildings in Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., totaling 1.6M SF of rentable space, according to its second-quarter earnings supplement. The properties are 74.6% leased and 63.2% economically leased. Those properties make up 10.3% of the REIT’s annualized lease revenue, it disclosed.
Ballston’s 7.3M SF office market was 20.7% vacant as of the end of June, according to CBRE’s Q2 report, while the full Northern Virginia region sat at 21.3% vacant.
UPDATE, SEPT. 14, 6 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include information from the sellers’ Monday evening press release.
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