A downtown office building that’s roughly 60% vacant has a new owner with a lease-up and small-scale improvement plan.

D.C.-based investment firm PRP Real Assets on Tuesday closed on a 117K SF office building at 900 19th St. NW.

The firm paid around $30M for the building, PRP Chief Investment Officer Jon McAvoy told Bisnow. The 1979-era office building was sold by Tishman Speyer, which had owned it since 2006 and completed a substantial renovation in 2017. 

Tishman confirmed that the sale closed but declined to comment on the transaction. 

McAvoy called the deal a “basis reset” and said that gave the firm the opportunity to reinvest. PRP plans to infuse six figures into modifications within the next year.

“[In D.C.] there continue to be a number of properties that are unable to meet the needs of the tenant community, that are just not in a position to do so right now,” he said. “And we feel like a corner building such as this one, with great facade and great visibility, is a prime example of where we can deliver on what we do.” 

The 60% vacancy is concentrated on three empty floors, each 16K SF, which would position the building for an anchor tenant opportunity. McAvoy said PRP is assessing all interest. 

Meanwhile, PRP is interested in replicating the deal at other properties in the city. 

“We're looking to do this similar business model again, which is: Find opportunities where the current building owners may not be interested in reinvesting in the property. We call it good building, bad balance sheet,” he said. 

PRP purchased Market Square, the twin Pennsylvania Avenue properties surrounding the Navy Memorial, in 2024 for $323M, one of the largest office deals of that year.

Its new acquisition at 900 19th sits next to Tishman’s International Square, a more than 1M SF office building that houses The Square food hall. That property's CMBS loans were sent to special servicing in May, and its $450M capital stack matures this month, according to Morningstar Credit.

“We are exceptionally proud of our best-in-class office portfolio, which has consistently outperformed across our global markets,” a Tishman spokesperson said in an email. “Since 2021, we have successfully refinanced, modified, or retired $23 billion in maturing office debt globally. This makes International Square an outlier within our portfolio and not representative of our broader office platform.”

Tishman paid $11.3M for 900 19th when it purchased the property from Carr Properties in December 2006, deed records show.