REIT is selling medical and office buildings for $500.8 million

Published September 30, 2013 by Robert Powell, III

The Rockville, Md.-based Washington Real Estate Investment Trust (WRIT) has signed a deal to sell its  medical office portfolio and two suburban office buildings for $500.8 million to an undisclosed buyer.
The properties, many of which are in Virginia, have total space of about 1.5 million square feet, making the deal worth $329 per square foot.

The portfolio includes 17 medical office buildings and two office buildings, 6565 Arlington Boulevard and the Woodholme Center in Maryland, as well as a land parcel in Alexandria, which is being utilized as off-site/overflow parking for one of the medical office buildings.

The medical buildings are near major hospitals in the Washington region, including Inova Fairfax Hospital.

The sale will be structured as four independent transactions, each of which will have a separate purchase and sale agreement. The projected closing date for the first two transactions is Nov. 12, and the outside closing date for the second two transactions is Jan. 31, 2014.

In January, WRIT announced the proposed sale of the medical office portfolio to streamline the company's business operations. With the sale of medical office portfolio, WRIT will focus exclusively on  the office, multifamily and retail sectors.

WRIT currently owns 69 properties totaling about 8 million square feet of commercial space and 2,540 multifamily units, and land held for development.