Vienna’s Rosenthal Properties has emerged as the winning bidder for Washington Real Estate Investment Trust’s remaining retail portfolio, paying about $168 million for eight centers.
WashREIT (NYSE: WRE) closed Wednesday on the sale of the nearly 700,000-square-foot portfolio to Rosenthal and an undisclosed institutional partner following a competitive bidding process managed by a JLL capital markets team including Jordan Lex. It’s the latest in a series of dispositions for the real estate investment trust as it seeks to de-risk its holdings in Greater Washington by leaning heavily into multifamily.
The D.C.-based WashREIT disclosed in June that it had reached a deal to sell the portfolio, which includes properties in Northern Virginia, D.C. and suburban Maryland, to an undisclosed buyer.
The sale offered Rosenthal the opportunity to further bulk up its holdings, totaling 8 million square feet of owned or leased properties. The acquisition was a value-add play for the firm, which hopes to boost the leased percentage in the centers from about 85%. There are a handful of big-block vacancies in some, including one created by the loss of Gold’s Gym at the Montrose Shopping Center in Rockville.
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