Georgetown University is expanding its property holdings around its law school campus in D.C.'s East End.
The university paid $70M for a newly vacant office building at 500 First St. NW in a deal posted Monday to the D.C. Recorder of Deeds.
The seller is Office Properties Income Trust, formerly Government Properties Income Trust, which scooped up the building with its 2017 acquisition of First Potomac Realty Trust. First Potomac bought the building in 2008 for $44.9M, property records show.
RMR Group, which managed Government Properties' portfolio, brought on Avison Young in January 2018to help lease the building as its anchor tenant was preparing to vacate. RMR had planned to renovate the building after the agency's departure, but it is not clear if those renovations occurred before the sale. Georgetown and RMR did not respond to requests for comment.
The 130K SF office building was constructed in 1969. The Bureau of Prisons, which previously occupied the full building, inked a 10-year renewal in 2008, but in 2016 the GSA announced the bureau would move to 370 L'Enfant Plaza, a move it completed last year.
The building sits directly to the south of the Georgetown University Law Center, a sign the university could integrate it into the law school campus. It is within a half-mile of Union Station and the U.S. Capitol.
