A New York-based real estate firm has lost control of an office building in Upper Northwest D.C.

Brickman, a real estate investment firm led by Bruce Brickman, defaulted last year on a CMBS loan secured by a 71K SF property, according to special servicer notices in the Morningstar Credit database.

The six-story property at 4201 Connecticut Ave. NW, near the Van Ness Metro station, has been transferred to a receiver, according to Morningstar. The name of the receiver wasn't disclosed.

Brickman purchased the office building from fellow New York real estate firm Joss Realty in 2014 for $23.1M, documents in the D.C. Recorder of Deeds show. In May 2019, the property was refinanced with $21M from Barclays Capital, which was then securitized into CMBS debt a few months later, according to deed records.

In June, the loan was transferred to special servicer K-Star Asset Management due to imminent monetary default, according to the Morningstar notices.

Brickman didn't respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.

The Connecticut Avenue office building has lost tenants over the past year. Bank of America’s 5K SF ground-floor lease at the property expired last March, and CBRE has marketed the vacancy as a "rare retail opportunity with drive-thru."

Consulting firm Quadrant Strategies was also located at the property as of last spring, but it planned to move down the street after receiving a Vitality Fund incentive from the District, the Washington Business Journal reported. The move was expected to more than triple Quadrant’s footprint to 15,690 SF.

The largest tenants at 4201 Connecticut Ave. NW are the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing, which has a 10K SF lease expiring in 2033, and market researcher Greenwald Research, with 7,588 SF expiring in 2027, according to Morningstar.

Pho 14 and Van Ness Wines and Liquors are ground-floor retail tenants, according to their websites. The property also has an underground parking garage with just over 100 spaces.

Brickman's website says it is under construction and provides little information on the New York-based firm. It closed a sale in October of a 73K SF Boston office building to City Realty for $11M, 46% less than it had paid when it acquired the building in 2015.