Nuveen Sells NoVA Office for 76% Less Than What It Paid in 2006
The trade is emblematic of NoVA’s diminishing office property values
By Nick Trombola April 9, 2025 12:45 pm
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A nearly half-empty building in Arlington, Va., has traded hands for more than 76 percent off its last sale price almost two decades ago.
Chicago-based Nuveen sold the 197,000-square-foot office building at 4350 North Fairfax Drive to Rooney Properties for just $20.2 million — a far cry from the $85 million the investment management firm, a subsidiary of TIAA, paid for it in 2006. Bisnow first reported the news, citing property records. Newmark’s James Cassidy, Jud Ryan and Grant Marley brokered the deal.
About 84,000 square feet of office space at the building, which Nuveen dubbed the Ellipse, is currently available, according to Avison Young’s leasing website for the property, yet that figure is likely to rise. Other occupants there, such Marine Acoustics, Tax Matters Associates and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, are expected to vacate, per Bisnow.
Nuveen’s decision to sell the building ultimately came down to the firm’s inability to find fresh tenants, Cassidy told Commercial Observer. Northern Virginia has experienced a sea change in its office market as of late, he added, and Nuveen would’ve needed to spend more money than it wanted to make the building viable for new occupants.
A spokesperson for Nuveen declined to comment about the sale of the Ellipse. Representatives for Rooney Properties, did not immediately respond to requests from CO for further comment.
Much like its neighbor Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia has struggled with poor office occupancy and declining office values, even as multifamily buildings regularly sell for nine figures.
At the end of last year, for example, Finmarc paid $51 million for a 620,000-square-foot office campus near Dulles International Airport, dubbed Dulles Center. Yet seller Rockpoint paid a total of $141 million for the four-building portfolio in 2018. The previous August, Finmarc paid just $39 million for the four-building Trinity Centre, about 11 miles south of Dulles Center, while sellers Spear Street Capital and Partners Group purchased the portfolio for $134 million in 2016.
More recently, in mid-March, a Brookfield subsidiary sold the eight-story Arlington Medical Center in Arlington, Va., to an affiliate of Remedy Medical Properties for $47 million — about $3 million less than Brookfield paid for it in 2021.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
