Piedmont Realty Trust Pays $52.7 Million for Arlington Office, Nearly Double 2024 Price

Piedmont Realty Trust Pays $52.7 Million for Arlington Office, Nearly Double 2024 Price

Piedmont Realty Trust has acquired a 189,000-square-foot Class A office tower at 4075 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington’s Ballston submarket for $52.7 million, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The price represents nearly double the $27.6 million a joint venture paid for the same asset in September 2024, when the building was still recovering from post-pandemic distress.

The selling venture — a partnership among FarmView Ventures, GreenBarn Investment Group and Rithm Capital — bought the property at 52 percent occupancy and invested roughly $6 million in renovations. The operators also leased up the ground-floor retail and completed 10 office leases during the hold. Today the building stands about 83 percent leased with a weighted-average lease term of 5.5 years.

FarmView Ventures CEO John Wolf described the transaction as the first “round trip” institutional office sale in the region since the post-COVID market reset, per a social media post.

The tenant roster skews toward government-adjacent industries. Defense contractor Systems Planning & Analysis, cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 and software company Nalej occupy space in the building, and energy firm Argan relocated its headquarters there last year. Retail tenants include Sweetgreen, Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, Grazie Nonna and Pinnacle Bank.

According to the SEC filing, the Ballston submarket remains a hub for defense and cybersecurity tenants, with the property located two blocks from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research.

The deal deepens Piedmont’s existing footprint in Ballston. The Atlanta-based REIT already owns nearby properties at 3100 Clarendon Boulevard, 4250 North Fairfax Drive and Arlington Gateway at 901 North Glebe Road. Wolf said Piedmont controls close to 25 percent of the submarket.

Rithm Capital, the New York-based asset manager focused on real estate, credit and financial services, was a member of the selling venture. Its shares closed at $9.81 in the prior session and traded recently at $9.57, down about 2.4 percent, valuing the company at roughly $5.69 billion.

The transaction stands out in a Northern Virginia office market that has been repricing since the pandemic, as investors weigh hybrid work patterns against resilient demand from defense, cybersecurity and government-contracting tenants clustered near federal agencies.

What to watch

• Piedmont’s upcoming quarterly earnings, which may detail the acquisition’s cap rate, financing and expected contribution to funds from operations.
• Further leasing activity at 4075 Wilson Boulevard as the property works toward stabilization from its current 83 percent occupancy.
• Additional institutional office sales in the Ballston submarket, which could help establish post-reset pricing benchmarks for the region.

Source: original release