Akridge partners with Long Wharf Real Estate Partners to buy Alexandria office building

Published June 16, 2014 by Paula C. Squires

Washington, D.C.-based Akridge said Monday that it has partnered with Long Wharf Real Estate Partners in Boston to acquire 2800 Eisenhower Avenue, a building Akridge has bought for the second time.

Akridge was a prior owner of 2800 Eisenhower when it purchased what was then a vacant building out of bankruptcy in 1996.  “We sold it fully leased in 1998 and look forward to implementing that program again – sixteen years later.  The building's positioning in the market has improved dramatically during that time period; our prior ownership was before the Carlyle submarket and the Patent and Trademark office were realities,” Brian Connolly, an Akridge executive vice president, said in a statement.

The 116,000-square-foot building is located in the Carlyle/Eisenhower submarket of Alexandria, one of the area’s most active markets, with an office vacancy rate of less than 5 percent. Akridge did not disclose the terms of the deal. 

2800 Eisenhower is part of the Alexandria Tech Center (ATC) development, a nine-building complex that includes office buildings, financial institution headquarters and two hotels.

The building fronts on the Capital Beltway, which has a traffic count of 250,000 vehicles per day, and is close to the Eisenhower Avenue and King Street Metro stations. 2800 Eisenhower is less than a mile from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the new 700,000-square-foot National Science Foundation building, which is currently under construction and will house about 2,400 employees.

Built in 1987, 2800 Eisenhower sits on 2.3 acres of land and offers large floor spaces of 30,000 square feet. The new owners plan a major renovation that will include significant upgrades to the exterior of the building, lobby, common areas, restrooms and fitness facility.  The building also will undergo upgrades to mechanical systems, including a full elevator modernization.

“Akridge has looked to partner with Long Wharf Real Estate Partners for years, and we are excited to work with them on such a great opportunity.  We look forward to working with them to bring 2800 back to an Akridge quality building,” Matt Klein, president of Akridge, said in a statement.