April 14, 2020 Jon Banister, Bisnow Washington, D.C.

A New York real estate firm acquired a Downtown D.C. office building this week in a deal the broker said was made more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis.

Marx Realty acquired the 1307 New York Ave. NW building from a group of education associations in a $41.5M deal posted Tuesday morning to the D.C. Recorder of Deeds.

The investor plans to spend another $41M renovating the property, Marx Realty CEO Craig Deitelzweig tells Bisnow. 

The 106K SF office building was sold by a joint venture of the American Association of Colleges for Teachers Education, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

The buyer secured a $25.6M loan from Ares Commercial Real Estate Management along with the acquisition, deed records show. Marx now owns four buildings in D.C, including the 819 Seventh St. NW property it acquired in September 2018. It also owns five properties in Northern Virginia.

“We want to buy more in D.C.,” Deitelzweig said. “We find D.C. attractive in terms of the jobs least likely to be impacted by COVID-19.”

Savills’ Parker Lange, Vernon Knarr and Ben Plaisted teamed up with CBRE’s Manny Fitzgerald to broker the deal on behalf of the seller. Lange said the economic uncertainty created by the coronavirus forced the team to work extra time to get the deal over the finish line. 

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