Brandywine-Allstate JV Takes Suburban D.C. Portfolio for $120.6M

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

A joint venture of Brandywine Realty Trust and an affiliate of Allstate Insurance Co. will soon take ownership of Station Square, a 499,400-square-foot office complex on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in Silver Spring, Md.  Brandywine-AI, as the venture is known, will acquire the three-building asset from a joint venture consisting of Urdang’s Value-Added Fund II and Moore & Associates for $120.6 million. The transaction is on track to close July 10.

The deal shows the difference three years has made in the local market.  In 2009, when Station Square last traded, Urdang-Moore purchased the portfolio for approximately $74.7 million. For Brandywine-AI, the acquisition will come at what the joint venture calls a “significant discount to replacement cost.”

Located at 1100 and 1010 Wayne Ave. and 8484 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring’s central business district, the transit-oriented complex is 93 percent leased, according to a report from CBRE Group Inc. That level is well above suburban Maryland’s office occupancy rate of 85 percent and Montgomery County’s 87.4 percent.

The sponsorship, the tenancy and the promise of an increasingly strong office market likely contributed to Brandywine-AI’s ability to obtain $66.5 million of non-recourse  financing for the acquisition.

The joint venture is hardly done with combing the local market for opportunities. “The Brandywine-AI Venture plans to seek additional office building acquisitions in the Washington D.C., markets, with particular emphasis on quality properties located near transit and amenities inside the Capital Beltway,” said Gerard H. Sweeney, president and CEO of Brandywine Realty Trust.