Maryland Office Portfolio Trades for $240M

Rockville, Maryland-based Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRE) announced that it has sold all six of its suburban Maryland office properties for $240 million in two separate contracts to an affiliate of Brookfield Property Partners. The REIT retained Cushman & Wakefield to market its suburban portfolio holdings at the beginning of the year, shifting its focus to urban, Metro-accessible sites in Greater Washington. In a press release on Q1 financials, WRE said it expects the transactions to close in Q2 and Q3 of 2016, and that it is also under contract to sell a parcel of land at Dulles Station in nearby Herndon, Virginia.

Properties in the portfolio include:

6110 Executive Boulevard, 10-story 202,000 square foot office building in Rockville

One Central Plaza at 11300 Rockville Pike, a 267,000 square foot 13-story office building (acquired by WRE for $44M in 2001)

600 Jefferson Plaza in Rockville at 5 stories tall with 113,000 square feet of space

The West Gude Drive complex at 20, 30, 40, 50 West Gude Drive, 277,000 square feet over 5 stories

The 21-story 51 Monroe Street office building with 223,000 square feet of space

and Wayne Plaza at 962 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring with 99,000 square feet over 9 floors

Washington REIT CEO Paul McDermott had said during the October 2015 earnings call that the properties had significant upside for buyers willing to invest in them. West Gude, for example, is "definitely a sales candidate that has opportunity to it," while "600 Jefferson would probably be another opportunity for someone else to improve and allocate capital to, same with Wayne Plaza." Earlier this month, WRE placed a nine-story, fully leased office building on the market that serves global headquarters for Booz Allen Hamilton and is near the Greensboro Metro Station in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Partners.

WRIT Disposes of $307M in Medical Properties

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT), a metro-DC-based equity real estate investment trust founded in 1960, announced that it had completed two separate sale transactions to complete the first phase of the disposition of the company's medical office portfolio. During an earnings call last month, company officials said the medical building selloff was a move to raise capital rather than borrowing to expand. WRIT reported two deals totaling $307.2 million covering about 877,000 square feet of medical office space, plus another 216,000 square feet of office space, much of it filled with medical tenants.

"As planned, the structure of this large transaction has provided WRIT the flexibility to redeploy the sales proceeds into assets that are aligned with our current strategy. We look forward to executing the two remaining medical office sales transactions in the next few months," said Paul T. McDermott, President and Chief Executive Officer of WRIT.

The first sale transaction included 2440 M Street, Alexandria Professional Center, Woodholme Medical Office Building, 9850 Key West Avenue, 15001 Shady Grove Road, 15005 Shady Grove Road, 6565 Arlington Boulevard, 19500 at Riverside Office Park, 9707 Medical Center Drive, Woodholme Center, CentreMed I & II, Ashburn Farm I, II and III, 8301 Arlington Boulevard and Sterling Medical Office Building. The second transaction included 4661 Kenmore Avenue, a land parcel that is being utilized as off-site/overflow parking for one of the medical office buildings, Alexandria Professional Center, located in Alexandria, Virginia. The sole buyer in these transactions was Harrison Street Real Estate Capital. WRIT’s remaining medical office properties are also under two additional contracts with Harrison Street Real Estate Capital and are projected to close as follows: Woodburn I & II on or about January 31, 2014 for approximately $79 million, and Prosperity I, II and III on or about January 31, 2014 for approximately $114.6 million.

"The sale of their MOBs, like the sale of their industrial portfolio two years ago, was excellent from a strategic, pricing and timing perspective," John Guinee III, managing director with brokerage and investment banking firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc., told Commercial Property Executive. But having half-a-billion-dollar to play with in pursuit of a new investment strategy may not be as simple as it seems. "The WRIT challenge is what to do with the proceeds, as the DC-area real estate investment sales market remains hot with a disconnect between pricing and fundamentals–high versus uninspiring," Guinee added.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

WRIT Completes Sale of Plumtree Professional Center

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT), a real estate investment trust investing in income-producing properties in the greater Washington metro region, announced this week that it had completed the sale of Plumtree Professional Center for $8.75 million. Represented by Cassidy Turley, the 33,921-square foot, single-story medical office building was sold by WRIT to The Atkins Companies.

"As we continue to focus our investments in larger assets in areas closer to the Washington, DC urban core, Plumtree no longer fits into our strategic vision. The property has been a solid performer over the past six years, as evidenced by our 13% internal rate of return," said George F. "Skip" McKenzie, President and Chief Executive Officer of WRIT.

"This sale represented a rare opportunity for an investor to purchase a stable medical office property in the growing and affluent market of Harford County, Maryland," commented Jonathan M. Carpenter, Senior Vice President and Principal at Cassidy Turley. "Medical office assets remain attractive to both institutional and private investors due to their stable cash flows and irreplaceable locations near key healthcare demand drivers."

Plumtree Professional Center is located at 104 Plumtree Road in Bel Air, Maryland and was built in 1991. WRIT acquired the property in 2006 as part of a portfolio acquisition of four medical office buildings, achieving a net book gain of approximately $1.6 million according to a Baltimore Citybizlist report. At the time of sale, the building was fully leased to five unnamed tenants.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

WRIT Sells DC Area Portfolio for $350M

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT), the oldest publicly traded REIT in the country, has entered into several contracts with a single buyer to sell off its entire industrial portfolio along with two office properties. The $350 million portfolio, totalling roughly 3.1 million square feet, was picked up by AP AG Portfolio LLC, a partnership led by AREA Property Partners Value Enhancement Fund VII LP and Adler Group Inc. according to a CoStar report.

The contracts consist of five separate purchase and sale agreements, each covering one or more separate assets. Three of the contracts (which aggregate to $235.7 million of assets) are expected to close on or about September 1, 2011. An additional contract (representing $44.6 million of assets) is expected to close on or about October 3, 2011. The final contract (representing $69.7 million of assets) is expected to close on or about November 1, 2011.

"In initiating these sale transactions, WRIT has taken a major step towards executing on a strategic goal we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. Having our industrial portfolio under these contracts enables us to focus our attention on redeploying expected sales proceeds in assets that better fit our long term strategy of acquiring properties inside the Beltway, near major transportation nodes and in areas with strong employment drivers and superior growth demographics," said George F. "Skip" McKenzie, President and CEO of WRIT.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.