JBG Smith Lists DC Luxury Rental for $180M

The JBG Smith blowout sale is ready to claim its next property.

The Bethesda-based real estate investment trust is seeking to sell a luxury apartment building in Washington, D.C.’s Union Market neighborhood, according to a tenant notice reported by Bisnow. JBG is seeking $180 million for The Batley at 1270 Fourth St. NE, which would break down to $41,666 per unit.

It’s a drop from the $205 million JBG Smith paid to purchase the property in 2021. It acquired the property through a 1031 tax exchange.

JBG Smith informed tenants about the plan to sell the 432-unit building this month. Under local law, residents have the right to purchase the building, though the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act could be amended under a recent proposal by Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The property has 14 vacant units, according to the notice. The property consists largely of market-rate units, though there are 38 inclusionary zoning units and a lone D.C. housing voucher unit.

Market-rate one-bedroom units average $2,450 per month, while the studios average $1,963 and the two-bedroom units average $3,573.

Edens, Trammell Crow Residential and Level 2 Development completed the building in 2019, three years after breaking ground on the project. The property also includes a Latin American food hall on the ground floor.

JBG Smith doubled its losses year-over-year in the fourth quarter, posting a net loss of $60 million. Its net loss for the year was $143 million, well above the $80 million loss of 2023.

In the midst of the losses, JBG Smith is in a selling mode. It sold its lone multifamily property in Bethesda last month for $194 million. In December, it sold a 375,000-square-foot office property near Washington Circle for $110 million. And in September, it offloaded Fort Totten Square, an apartment complex at 5661 Third Street NE, for $86.8 million.

— Holden Walter-Warner