Penzance Pays $25M for DC-Area Office Building

Ballston One was completed in 1986 and renovated in 2014. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

Penzance has acquired Ballston One, a 239,678-square-foot office building in Arlington, Va. The asset traded for $25 million, while it was last assessed for tax purposes at a value of $62.8 million, public records show.

The seller, UBS Realty Investors, purchased the property in 1997 for $43.1 million, according to CommercialEdge data. JLL represented the seller and procured the buyer.

Completed in 1986, the building underwent cosmetic renovations in 2014. It rises 12 stories and features 18,573 square feet of retail space. The property is also LEED Gold certified and encompasses six passenger elevators and a fitness center, along with 450 parking spaces. Tenants include Vista Outdoor, Fluence, America’s Power and American Heart Associates, according to CommercialEdge.

Located at 4601 N. Fairfax Drive in downtown Arlington, Ballston One is near Interstate 66 and Highway 120, while Washington, D.C. is roughly 6 miles away.

Fewer office sales in Washington, D.C.

JLL’s Senior Managing Directors Matt Nicholson, Andrew Weir and Jim Meisel, along with Senior Director Dave Baker, Director Kevin Byrd and Associate Kameel Omar led the team that represented the seller. Members of the same team recently represented Brookfield Properties in the sale of a 120,031-square-foot office building, also located within the D.C.-area.

During the first four months of 2023, roughly 2.3 million square feet of office space traded in the Washington, D.C., market, significantly below the 6 million square feet volume registered in the same period in 2022, a CommercialEdge market update shows. Year-to-date through April, the average sales price dropped 27.4 percent year-over-year, reaching $249 per square foot, but still well above the national average of $196, according to the same source.