Washington, D.C., March 31, 2010 – NoMa Business Improvement District announced today that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has signed an expansion lease for 40,996 square feet at One Constitution Square. GSA will now occupy all of the new 329,251 square feet of office space at First and M Streets, NE, in Washington, D.C.’s rapidly developing NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) neighborhood. GSA will use the space for its headquarters office while the agency’s existing building at 1800 F Street, NW, is undergoing modernization. With this lease expansion, the commercial space within the 1.6 million SF first phase of Constitution Square is now 99 percent pre-leased.
The 1.6 million-square-foot first phase of Constitution Square, the largest private development in Washington, D.C., includes:
- One Constitution Square, a 329,251 SF office building now entirely pre-leased to GSA for its headquarters operation;
- Two Constitution Square at 145 N Street, NE, a 589,000 SF office building fully pre-leased to the GSA for the Department of Justice (DOJ) for 15 years;
- A residential building with 440 luxury apartments;
- A 50,000-square-foot Harris Teeter grocery store;
- A 204-room Hilton Garden Inn with meeting facilities; and
- 30,000 square feet of street-level retail space.
NoMa is one of the last remaining areas in Washington, DC, that offers opportunities for large-scale infill development. The property is adjacent to both entrances of the New York Avenue Metrorail station and at the commercial, vehicular, and pedestrian heart of NoMa. In February, StonebridgeCarras announced five new restaurant and retail leases that will join the 50,000 SF Harris Teeter grocery store scheduled to open later this year:
- TD Bank, NoMa’s first full-service banking facility (5,200 SF)
- Potbelly Sandwich Works restaurant (2,500 SF)
- Tynan Coffee & Tea Café (2,100 SF)
- Constitution Café restaurant (6,000 SF)
- Georgetown Valet dry cleaner (1,100 SF)
“Constitution Square has been a game changer for NoMa, bringing us our first grocery store, several new retail and restaurant options and thousands of new employees and residents. Now 99% pre-leased, Constitution Square is one of the strongest performing projects in the city and the country right now,” said BID President Liz Price. More than 5,000 new employees and up to 1,200 residents will move to NoMa over the next few months, Price said.
Constitution Square also has one million additional square feet of future office, residential, and retail development. It is a joint development of affiliates of StonebridgeCarras of Bethesda, MD and Walton Street Capital of Chicago, IL.
About NoMa
NoMa is a mixed-use neighborhood north of Massachusetts Avenue and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Between 2007-2009, private developers have invested more than $1.5 billion in the 35-block area covered by the NoMa BID, and have plans to develop more than 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, and retail space over the next 15 years. For more information about the BID, including an interactive development map, visit the BID Web site at http://nomabid.wpengine.com.
About StonebridgeCarras, LLC
StonebridgeCarras, LLC is a privately held real estate investment and development firm based in Bethesda, MD focusing primarily on developing mixed-use properties in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. During the past 20 years, the principals of StonebridgeCarras, LLC have been involved in the acquisition, development, joint venture, financing, and disposition of real estate assets in the Washington area exceeding $5.0 billion in value.
About Walton Street Capital, L.L.C.
Walton Street Capital, L.L.C. was founded in 1995 and is a premier private real estate investment company operating in the U.S. and abroad. Since its inception, Walton Street has received equity commitments in excess of $4.5 billion from public and corporate pension funds, foreign institutions, endowments and foundations, trusts, and high net worth individuals. Through its series of opportunistic and value-added funds, Walton Street has invested or committed to invest more than $3.5 billion of equity in approximately 160 separate transactions totaling over $13 billion of gross assets in the U.S. and abroad. These transactions include the development and acquisition of office, hotel, retail, industrial, multi-family, for-sale residential, senior and student housing, and golf assets through individual, portfolio, and company-level transactions.