Spruced-up NoVA office park adding, relocating tenants

Published June 17, 2019 by Michael O'Connor

A Northern Virginia office park has landed a new tenant and is relocating two others as demand remains steady in the regional market.

The Willow Oaks Corporate Center in Merrifield has entered lease agreements with Fairfax Radiological Consultants, Hardesty & Hanover and Right at Home. The leases total 30,739 square feet. Willow Oaks includes three buildings totaling 584,003 square feet.

Fairfax Radiological has signed on for 23,829 square feet, and Right at Home, an in-home health-care provider for the elderly and disabled, will occupy 4,069 square feet. Both are moving into the building at 8260 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive. Fairfax Radiological’s suite is under construction, and KBS expects the practice to move into its new space in November. Right at Home is an existing Willow Oaks tenant that will relocate to its new suite in August.

Hardesty & Hanover, an infrastructure engineering firm, has taken 2,841 square feet at 8280 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive. It is a new tenant.

KBS, a private equity real estate company, owns Willow Oaks Corporate Center through KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II. The firm said it bought the office park in 2009 for $112 million.

Stephen Close, KBS senior vice president and asset manager, says that during the past few years his firm has renovated Willow Oaks. Changes have included a 3,000-square-foot café, landscaping and upgrades to restrooms. He did not provide the cost of the renovations.

Other Virginia properties in KBS’s portfolio include office buildings in Clarendon, Herndon, Fairfax and Reston. KBS is based in Newport Beach, California.

According to a Newmark Knight Frank office market report, Northern Virginia office space continues to see steady demand this year after a solid 2018. Net absorption in the first quarter of 2019 was 633,028 square feet – the highest quarterly total since the first quarter of 2018.

Close of KBS says Amazon’s HQ2 plans in Arlington haven’t affected the Willow Oaks or its submarket.

Still, Northern Virginia is proving to be a business-friendly market in light of the recent activity there by Amazon and Nestlé USA, said Marc Deluca, a regional president for KBS, in a press release. Nestlé S.A relocated its U.S. headquarters from California to Rosslyn in 2017, and a Nestlé subsidiary, Gerber Products Co., announced plans last year to relocate its U.S. headquarters from New Jersey to Arlington.

In the Willow Oaks lease agreements, Mark Roberts of Savills Inc. represented Fairfax Radiological; Dan Brennan of Larsen Commercial Real Estate represented Right at Home; and Jude Collins of Cushman & Wakefield represented Hardesty & Hanover. Wes Evans and Steve Hoffeditz of Newmark Knight Frank represented KBS.