We thought that headline might get your attention. And it has the benefit of possibly also being true. But we're not sure — maybe you can help us.
The announcement a couple weeks back that Fannie Mae will take 700k SF for its new HQ in a complex to replace the Washington Post HQ was applauded as a coup for developer Carr Properties. But unremarked on is how dramatic a number that 700k represents in Washington office space history, outside of government or higher ed. (Even though Fannie was downsizing from 1.2M SF.)
Now, at this point we could undertake intensive database research, and in fact we tried that for over 15 minutes. But the beauty of journalism in the interactive age is that we can seek "community contributed content" (a euphemism for making you do the work). Anyone know of a bigger private sector DC lease, ever? For the first person who can prove us wrong on this, we will award two highly coveted and priceless tickets to a Bisnow event. Submit to: DisproveBisnow@Bisnow.com.
Here's another thing we've heard: that the lease was negotiated in a mere seven days after Fannie decided it would consider an alternative to previous front-runner 555 12th St. We ran into Carr COO Dan Dooley at TrendLines last week, and although we persuaded him to take a picture, we could not persuade him to confirm the rumor. Nor to tell us whether Carr will now change the thrust of its 15th Street plans from mixed-use to mainly office.
Snapped this morning, Fannie's brokers from DTZ: Art Santry and Ned Goodwin (also assisted by their colleague Kurt Richter, who must have been out golfing or forgot a coat). Here's the thing about these guys: You can get them to dress up but you can't get them to talk. What good are they, anyway? Oh, yeah. Doing, with Carr, the (possibly) biggest private sector lease in DC history.
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