JV Grabs Suburban MD Flex/Office Assets

By Corina Stef

8990 Route 108, Columbia, Md.

Feldman Bergin Development and Fortified Property Group partnered in the acquisition of a three-building flex/office portfolio located in the Columbia North submarket of Howard County, Md. According to public records, the seller was an affiliate of RREEF.

The single-story assets are located at 8970, 8980 and 8990 Route 108 and total 85,000 square feet of space. The building at 8970 Route 108 is designed to meet an office tenant’s need. The other assets feature 16-foot ceiling heights and loading docks, as 8980 Route 108 was built-to-suit for a craft brewery company that eventually didn’t move in.

The properties are 74 percent occupied by a diverse roster of tenants, including the Howard County government, Mechanical Sales, All About Yarn, Geotechnical Laboratories and Ben Secours Health System. Additionally, the three assets are part of the Oakland Ridge Center, situated one mile from the highly transited Route 29, five miles from Baltimore-Washington International Airport, 20 miles from Downtown Baltimore and 25 miles from Washington, D.C.

Healthy market fundamentals

Cushman & Wakefield’s Jonathan Carpenter and Graham Savage represented the seller in the transaction. The firm’s Andy Andrews and Scott Matthews will handle the leasing operations for the properties.

“In addition to acquiring this portfolio significantly below replacement cost, we determined the strong upside potential for the buildings with aggressive leasing and implementation of a cost-efficient asset management program,” Feldman Bergin Co-Founder & Principal Robert Bergin said in a prepared statement. “The Columbia North submarket remains tight with an existing 7.2 percent vacancy rate for single-story office/flex space, a figure that has hovered in the 6.4 percent range over the past five years.”

In a recent transaction, Feldman Bergin acquired another Baltimore-area office asset, this time in a joint venture with Kenwood Management Co. 

Image courtesy of Feldman Bergin Development