Brookfield, Douglas Development Seal $500M Refi for DC Office Asset
A consortium of foreign banks provided the debt
By Cathy Cunningham June 19, 2020 4:54 pm
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Brookfield (BN) Properties and Douglas Development have sealed a $500 million refinance for their Class A trophy office property at 655 New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., sources told Commercial Observer.
A consortium of banks including Crédit Agricole, Standard Chartered, Helaba and BayernLB provided the floating-rate loan, which takes out previous construction debt on the property.
The deal closed today, and the financing was negotiated by CBRE (CBRE)’s James Millon, Tom Traynor and P.J. Finley. Officials at CBRE declined to comment.
CO first reported the developers were in the market with the financing request back in January and that the transaction was being heavily competed by the lending community. It’s one of the biggest deals to close post-COVID, with foreign banks well and truly stepping up to the plate.
One source close to the deal described it as a “great execution that included equity repatriation.”
The 768,000-square-foot trophy office and retail project sits adjacent to the Washington Convention Center and spans an entire city block in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood of downtown Washington. The mega-complex comprises 19 existing historic buildings—erected in the early 1900s and acquired between 2001 and 2013—with a new, 11-story glass office building, and 80,000 square feet of space dedicated to food and retail.
Douglas Development bought the first of the historic building in 2001, eventually spending $72 million to acquire all 19 buildings, according to the Washington Business Journal. The project’s architect, Shalom Baranes Associates, incorporated design elements from the original properties in the project, including terracotta panels to help it blend into neighboring buildings.
Currently 92 percent leased to investment-grade tenants, the development is anchored by healthcare and education consulting company The Advisory Board Co., and includes a tenant-only two-floor gym and two private terraces for tenants leasing space on the upper floors.
In December 2019, PricewaterhouseCoopers signed a 15-year, 182,316-square-foot lease at the property, as previously reported by CO. PwC plans to move into its new space in the spring of 2021, consolidating two of its offices in the area. Additional tenants include The Capital Burger, Compass Coffee and Jeremiah Langhorne Restaurant.
