The opening of the new private school at the former Intelsat headquarters in Northwest D.C. is still over a year away, but the building's owner is already cashing in on the deal.
601 West Cos. raised $55M in equity and secured $225M in financing on the property at 4000 Connecticut Ave. NW, law firm Olshan Frome Wolosky, which represented the landlord, announced Tuesday.
The financing was structured as a $55M mezzanine loan, provided by LibreMax Value Master Fund Ltd., and a $170M construction loan. Ladder Capital provided $120M of the construction loan and Sequoia IDF Asset Holdings provided the other $50M.
The law firm did not announce the equity partners, but a deed posted Friday to the D.C. Recorder of Deeds shows one new partial owner. The deed says an entity controlled by New York-based Berkeley Properties acquired a 13.64% interest in the property for $15M, valuing it at roughly $110M. 601 West Cos. bought the building for $85M in 2012 from Intelsat ahead of its move to Tysons.
Educational entrepreneur Chris Whittle in February announced his plan to use the building as the campus for his new global private school, Whittle School & Studios. The school, describing itself as the world's first global school, is also planning to open a campus next year in Shenzhen, China. Whittle eventually plans to expand to 30 cities.
The renovation of the 600K SF office building into a private school will reportedly cost $185M. It will be designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, who designed The Shard in London and the New York Times building in Manhattan. The school is expected to open in fall 2019 and will accommodate 2,500 students.
