National Press Building For Sale, Could Fetch Nearly $300 Million

Feb. 22, 2011 - The National Press Building in Washington, home to the National Press Club, is on the market and could fetch as much as $295 million, or $600 a square foot. This, according to tomorrow's edition of the Real Estate Alert newsletter.

Cassidy Turley is marketing the 491,000-square-foot building for the owner, a venture led by Quadrangle Development, Real Estate Alert reports. The building is 96 percent occupied and just the sort of core asset investors are craving - and paying record prices for across the country.

The building at 529 14th St. NW, completed in 1927, was renovated in 1985 and again in 2006. It's only two blocks from the White House.

This offering should get a lot of attention from real estate reporters vying to break the story of the new owner.

 

Comments

[Gerald Jones]

$295M would be a 3.5% going-in cap. Not going to happen!

[Steve]

The building may be 96 percent occupied, but the business that supports its occupants is collapsing. The news business has been in decline for several years and the fall-off is accelerating. Journalists are being laid off in massive numbers. In 10 years, who will be left to work in the National Press Building? This will require building owners to scramble for new tenants at a time when the federal government will be downsizing, too. It's a nice building, to be sure, but purchasing it at a premium price will be a gamble.

[Carolyn Campbell]

As a school kid, I visited my mom's (Jo Campbell) office there in the 1950s. At seventeen she started as a "copy boy", a term she preferred, at the Washington Post, then as a staffer with Ben Kubasik PR, followed by several press services, and her last and favorite job, as a writer for USIA in the Near East and African branches where she retired after 35 years. I felt I was among an elite group of professionals; reporters, editors, PR representatives. I attended one luncheon as a teenager and it felt like a royal invitation. No surprise that 20 years later I would choose a career working with the media on a daily basis. It's a grand building filled with fond memories. Carolyn Campbell