Indiana University to Buy D.C. Building From Johns Hopkins: Report

As if the Big Ten’s expansion to the West Coast wasn’t enough, one of the conference’s most prominent universities is now attempting to buy into Washington, D.C.’s Embassy Row. 

Indiana University is reportedly under contract to acquire 1619 Massachusetts Avenue NW from Johns Hopkins University, according to Bisnow. IU plans to use the building for classrooms, offices and dorms to house about 40 students. Other details of the deal, including the price or an expected closing date, weren’t immediately available.

The eight-story, 59,000-square-foot building formerly housed part of Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies before it consolidated into the former home of now-defunct Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue last year. 

Johns Hopkins owns two other buildings nearby at 1717 and 1740 Massachusetts Avenue NW. The university in 2019 announced it would sell the three properties and use the proceeds to finance renovations it had planned for the former Newseum, which it acquired that same year for $372.5 million. Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) and Civitas were retained by the university to market the Massachusetts Avenue buildings, together dubbed the Embassy Row Collection, according to a brochure for the properties. The status of that sales effort for the other buildings was not immediately clear. 

For IU to move into the building, both it and Johns Hopkins would need to file a new and revised campus plan, respectively, for approval by the D.C. Zoning Commission. Johns Hopkins’ original campus plan was approved in 1986 when it purchased the building, per Bisnow.

A representative for IU confirmed to Commercial Observer that the university’s foundation has a contract to purchase the building, though declined to comment further. A representative for Johns Hopkins did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

IU’s plans are a welcome change of pace for the District, which has faced a declining commercial real estate market and record-high office vacancy rates. 

A “Downtown Action Plan” released by the DowntownDC and Golden Triangle Business Improvement Districts this past summer sets aside a chunk of the city south of DuPont Circle — which it dubs the Penn West Equity, Innovation & University District — in an attempt to entice such institutions to help “backfill or reposition existing office space that sits vacant today.”

Indeed, IU isn’t the only university interested in the District lately. Syracuse University last month opened a new center at 1333 New Hampshire Avenue NW, also in Dupont Circle, while Texas A&M last summer expanded its D.C. satellite campus to 70,000 square feet at 1620 L Street NW, about three blocks north of the White House. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.