Transwestern to Market NIH Office Building in Bethesda

Two Rockledge Centre, Bethesda, Md., courtesy of Transwestern

Bethesda, Md.—Transwestern has just added a new assignment to its plate. The real estate firm was recently tapped by Eagle Canyon Corp. to secure a buyer for Two Rockledge Centre, a 247,400-square-foot office building leased by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington, D.C.

Transwestern can put a big, bright checkmark in the tenancy category on Two Rockledge’s list of selling points. A Class A office property fully occupied by a government tenant in the suburban Maryland market is, as Mark Glagola, senior managing director of Transwestern’s Mid-Atlantic Capital Markets Group, told Commercial Property Executive, “reasonably rare.”

NIH, which moved into Two Rockledge in 1995, a decade after the property’s opening, inked a 15-year renewal of its lease of the entire 10-story tower in the third quarter of this year. And with an address of 6701 Rockledge Drive in Maryland’s biotech-centric DNA Alley, the building’s location is nothing to sneeze at either.

Transwestern puts the value of Two Rockledge in the high $80 million range, and anticipates a cap rate of slightly less than 6 percent. “Washington, D.C., is still considered a gateway market. Prices for core product are very healthy, and there is significant interest for long-term core income from both domestic and foreign buyers,” Glagola said.