(FAIRFAX, VA) -- In one of the biggest office building sales this year, the 570,038-square-foot, three-building, 93.2-percent leased Willow Oaks Corporate Center in metro Washington, DC has been sold for $112,173,598, or $196.78 per square foot.

The property sold for $125 million or $173 per square foot in 2005.

The buyer was KBS REIT II a publicly offered, non-traded real estate investment trust, based in Newport Beach, CA.  The seller was Prudential Real Estate Investors of Newark, NJ.

The property is located in the DC submarket of Merrifield in Fairfax County, VA, 10 miles west of the District of Columbia.
 
According to DC real estate tax assessment records,  Prentiss Properties Trust  of Houston, TX bought two of the buildings in 1998  for $72.4 million.

Prentiss built the third building on a nearby development site a few years later. When Prentiss' Properties was acquired by Brandywine Realty Trust and Prudential Real Estate Investors in 2005, Prentiss sold the then- 87-percent leased complex for $173 per square foot to Prudential for $125.6 million.

Willow Oaks Corporate Center is leased to such tenants as SRA International, ACS, General Dynamics and Computer Science Corporation. Of the complex's total leasable space, 60 percent is occupied by companies listed on the NYSE, and a sizeable percentage is taken by government contractors providing services for various public agencies.

Robin Burke

"We continue to see Washington, D.C., as a market with above-average potential thanks to a gradual rebounding of the government and service sectors," says Senior Vice President Robin Burke of KBS' Washington, D.C. office. "Willow Oaks offers an excellent balance of price, location, access and amenities, allowing us to price the building very aggressively relative to the competition."

Located near the intersection of Route 50 and the Capital Beltway (I-495), two of Northern Virginia's busiest commuter routes, the property is convenient to Tysons Corner and Washington Reagan and Dulles International Airports.

The 11.4-acre site is supported by a conference center, fitness center, café and shuttle service to the Dunn Loring METRO station. Each building features its own parking structure, and a range of restaurants and full- and limited-service hotels are located nearby.

The three buildings, 8260, 8270 and 8280 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, were completed in 1986, 1989 and 2003, respectively. 8270 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive has been fully leased since its initial lease-up in 2005.

KBS-affiliated companies own three other Washington, D.C.-area properties totaling more than 857,000 square feet of space. They are Tysons Dulles Plaza in McLean, Va.; 1945 Old Gallows Road in Vienna, Va.; and Redwood Plaza in Fairfax, VA.

William E. Kaye, Bill Prutting, Jr., and Randall Heilig of CBRE represented the seller in the Willow Oaks Corporate Center transaction. The deal closed Aug. 26.  

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