Historic DC Office Building Sells at 72% Discount for $50 Million
A venture led by Taicoon Property Partners has paid $50.35 million for the Commercial National Bank Building at 700 14th St. NW in Washington, D.C., acquiring the 223,292-square-foot property in a lender-controlled sale. The price comes to $225.49 per square foot.
The seller, New York-based Elecor Properties (which did business as Paramount Group until recently), had paid $183 million for the building in August 2013, buying it from Tishman Speyer at about $813 per square foot. The building changed hands this time for roughly 72% less.
Taicoon is a local buyer that acquires and repositions class A office buildings around Washington, D.C. and northern Virginia. It already owns 1400 K St. NW and 1899 L St. NW, both in the central business district.
The building itself is one of the more distinctive pieces of downtown Washington, D.C. Waddy B. Wood designed the 11-story, limestone structure, which was completed in 1917 and built to house Western Union, alongside Commercial National Bank. Greek Doric motifs run through an otherwise austere exterior, and the interior holds a three-story banking lobby lined with monumental columns. A 1986 renovation added an 11-story section fronting New York Avenue. The property has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1991.
However, the bank it was built for did not last nearly as long. Organized in 1904, Commercial National grew into the fourth largest in the city by the 1920s before failing in 1933 with its capital frozen at the value of the building. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has been the building’s main tenant for years, holding most of the space on a long-term lease.
Notably, the price still sits above what Washington, D.C. office buildings have been fetching, on average. Office space in the metro has traded at $168 per square foot so far this year against a national average of $205 and with nearly $2.4 billion of sales through August — the third-largest total in the South, according to Yardi Research Data.
Discounts of this size have been concentrated downtown. Of the properties sold nationally since 2024 with an earlier price to measure against, 73% of central business district buildings went for less than they previously fetched, compared with 48% of urban properties and 42% of suburban properties.