The U.S. government is pouring tens of billions of dollars into the Navy to build more ships and naval technologies, and one D.C. office submarket stands to benefit.
Government contractors have historically clustered in Northern Virginia, but landlords and local officials in the District see office demand rising from the sector, especially in the Southeast D.C. neighborhood anchored by the Washington Navy Yard and the Department of Transportation.
D.C.’s Navy Yard, seen from the rooftop of the Maren apartment building
“What we’re seeing is an incredible influx of new Navy contractors, defense technology contractors coming to the Navy Yard because the Navy is requiring them to have proximity,” Garfield Investments CEO John Mason said last week at Bisnow’s Developing Southeast D.C. event, held at Capital Turnaround.
Garfield in June acquired an office building at 300 M St. SE in the Navy Yard neighborhood for $28M. The building was 53% occupied when it sold, and Mason said at the time that his strategy centered around capturing the increased demand from defense contractors. In August, Garfield landed a 22K SF lease with naval contractor Reliability & Performance Technologies.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Jon Banister over at Bisnow
