Rare $375M DC Office Project Tops Out
Construction crews hoisted a key piece of steel atop 600 Fifth St. NW, topping the structure out on its way to a planned completion in 2026. Developed by The Rockefeller Group and Stonebridge, the building is currently the only major office project currently underway in Washington, D.C., where the post-pandemic dearth of demand has nearly halted office development.
Though planned since well before the March 2024 agreement to keep the Washington Wizards and Capitals at nearby Capital One Arena, the redevelopment stands to benefit from $515 million in new public outlays in the neighborhood over the next three years, not only to upgrade the arena, but to improve nearby infrastructure, according to Douglas Firstenberg, a principal at Stonebridge.
Putting the steel in place was more than a ceremonial act, since it will form an essential part of the building’s 12th floor, which will provide a tenant-amenity space that includes 15-foot ceilings and outdoor terraces that offer views of the U.S. Capitol. Such amenities are a selling point for the building. Others include open-air terraces on every other floor, a new energy-efficient glass curtain wall, and a new public park near the building.
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In 2020, property owner Washington Metro Area Transit Authority tapped Rockefeller Group and Stonebridge to redevelop the eight-story, 1974-vintage building on a city block into a modernized, 400,000-square-foot structure.
Rockefeller and Stonebridge inked a 99-year ground lease in 2023 with lessor Metro to facilitate the project, which has been able to move forward despite market doldrums. About half of the space at 600 Fifth Street NW is now preleased, with most of that—almost 200,000 square feet—taken by law firm Crowell & Moring as the building’s anchor.
Even if it weren’t the only major office project in D.C., the redevelopment would stand out for its city-block size, which is unusual for an office building in the District. To reach the topping out, work crews have placed over 747 tons of structural repositioning steel, 1,073 tons of overbuild steel on top of the existing structure, and 3,700 cubic yards of concrete, notes Clark Construction, which is building the structure. Some 9,800 tons of debris have been removed.
DC office development essentially on hold
During the years just before the pandemic, roughly 3 million square feet of new office space was developed per year in Washington, D.C., with the total tapering off further each year after 2019, according to JLL data.
As of the first quarter of 2024, only 734,000 square feet were under construction, much of it at 600 Fifth Street NW. The D.C. office market saw net negative absorption of about 423,000 square feet in the first quarter of 2024, and vacancies now stand at 19.5 percent.
On the other hand, first-quarter leasing was relatively strong, according to JLL, with law, media and tech tenants taking about 60 percent of the quarterly lease volume of 1.8 million square feet. Some 39 leases over 10,000 square feet were signed during the first quarter.
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