COPT Defense Pays $40M for Metro DC Office Building
A U.S. defense contractor occupies the entire property.
COPT Defense Properties has purchased Stonegate I, a 142,000-square-foot office property in Chantilly, Va., for $40.2 million, or $272 per square foot. PGIM Real Estate sold the asset after 18 years of ownership, Yardi Matrix shows.
The office building previously changed hands for $45.7 million or $309 per square foot in 2007, when PGIM acquired it from Spaulding & Slye Investments, according to the same source. The current deal places the asset at a 12 percent loss.
Completed in 2000, Stonegate I is a five-story property that sits across a 9-acre site and features two passenger elevators, controlled access and 325 car parking spaces. The low-rise is currently fully occupied by Peraton, a U.S. defense contractor that still has 10 years remaining of its lease term.
Located at 15050 Conference Center Drive, the office building is near the interchange between U.S. Route 50 and Virginia State Route 28, which connect Stonegate to downtown Washington D.C., some 28 miles east. The Dulles International Airport is 9 miles away.
DC office vacancy on the rise
Year-to-date, the Washington, D.C.-Suburban Maryland office market registered $2.5 billion in investment sales, with 135 assets changing hands at an average price of $168 per square foot, Yardi Matrix data shows. While the investment figure recorded in the first 10 months of 2024 is identical to this year’s performance, only 100 properties traded back then, at an average per-square-foot price of $222.
As of August, Washington, D.C., average listing rates clocked in at $41.36 per square foot, reflecting a negative 0.6 percent drop year-over-year, yet above the $32.63 national average, according to the latest Yardi Matrix office report. During the same month, office vacancy in the metro rose to 19.5 percent, up 260 basis points over a 12-month period.
Rising vacancies and discounted sales align with ongoing office space trends, directly resulting from hybrid work increasingly becoming the norm. Up to 66 percent of companies across the U.S. are offering flexible schedules, while the average occupancy rate set at around 50 percent over the past 12 months.
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