Post Brothers Lands Financing For $750M Conversion, D.C.'s Largest Ever
The team behind the largest office-to-residential conversion planned in D.C. rang in the new year by closing a record-breaking financing package.
The 1M SF project from Philadelphia-based Post Brothers is set to transform two mid-century Connecticut Avenue office buildings near Dupont Circle into 525 residential units.
The development, named The Geneva, has been in the planning stages for more than three years as the developer has awaited financing.
But in the final days of 2025, Post Brothers closed on two major pieces of its capital stack.
The developer received $465.3M in C-PACE financing from Nuveen Green Capital and $96.65M from Mavik Capital Management, documents filed with the D.C. recorder of deeds on Dec. 29 and 30 show.
The document on the $465M commitment includes an amortization and payment schedule that runs through 2058.
The deal appears to set a new record for C-PACE loans — by far — as Nuveen Green Capital boasted in September that a $290M deal in Tampa was the largest-ever deal using the green financing program.
The separate $97M loan represents a refinancing of a $79M loan that Post Brothers secured in October from Kawa Capital Management, the filing says.
Kawa CEO Daniel Ades confirmed to Bisnow that Post Brothers refinanced the firm's loan.
Post Brothers, Nuveen Green Capital and Mavik Capital Management didn't respond to requests for comment on the financing package.
After publication of this story, Post Brothers President Matthew Pestronk told the Wall Street Journal that the financing enables the developer to break ground on the project and that the total project cost is $750M.
Pestronk told the Washington Business Journal in October — when it reported the $79M loan — that the firm needed “a little bit more” cash to start construction but he believed the capital was within reach.
Post Brothers purchased the Universal complex at 1825 and 1875 Connecticut Ave. NW for just north of $200M in April 2022 — its first acquisition in the District — and received zoning approval to convert it in early 2023.
In September 2024, the project was one of the first three to receive D.C.’s 20-year tax abatement for downtown office-to-residential conversions.
But without financing secured, construction was unable to begin.
Last January, the developer asked D.C.’s Board of Zoning Adjustment for a two-year extension, citing its difficulty in procuring financing. It received the extension and now has until March 2027 to file building permit plans.
Post Brothers last year lost the opportunity to carry out its other planned office-to-residential conversion in D.C.
The developer was preparing to convert the 300K SF, 1960s-era office building at 2100 M St. NW into 400 apartment units. But in August, it lost that property to its lender at a foreclosure sale. The building is now set to be torn down to make way for BXP’s trophy office development for anchor tenant law firm Sidley Austin.
UPDATE, JAN. 6, 12:20 P.M. ET: This story has been updated with details from The Wall Street Journal's report on the deal.
