Gary Block
Gary Block
Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Meridian Group
Gary Block’s first encounter with the Meridian Group came early in his career as a finance lawyer back in the 1990s. He was representing the Carlyle Group, which was financing the Meridian’s Group’s very first deal.
Now, 25 years later, the Dallas-born Block is a partner and chief investment officer at the company, an opportunity fund and active developer in the D.C. region. The Meridian Group’s signature project is The Boro, a live-work-play community in the center of Tysons, Va. Meridian completed the first phase this year and received approvals for the second, 600,000-square-foot phase.
“The Boro is a textbook example of flight to quality, and a great example of the success of an urban core in a suburban location,” Block said. “It has the placemaking that you would typically see in an urban downtown.”
The Boro’s office component went from 70 percent to 95 percent leased over the course of 2021. Meridian also has office assets in the District — 1333 New Hampshire in Dupont Circle, 1901 L Street and The Aleck, two of which completed major renovations in 2020.
Just before COVID, Meridian began diversifying its portfolio and moving into two asset classes that would become especially prominent during the pandemic: residential and industrial. Earlier this year, the firm began its first logistics project, a $150 million development in Winchester, Va.
The last few years have also proven Block’s thesis that certain commercial assets are essentially obsolete, such as Class B offices and some retail assets in unfavorable locations. He’s on the lookout for conversion opportunities and already has some in the pipeline.
There was one deal Block hoped to get his hands on, but lost out to Post Brothers, which recently paid $228 million for a Class B office complex near Dupont Circle, with plans to convert it to multifamily. “We were outbid by $30 million,” Block said. Instead, he’s eying a multibox retail opportunity that involves converting “one or more of the boxes to multifamily.”
So stay tuned.
