Jemal Heir Emerges as Aggressive DC Office Buyer

As Washington’s office market smolders, a familiar name is buying the ashes.

Matthew Jemal, the 38-year-old scion of Douglas Development, has quietly become one of D.C.’s most active office buyers, scooping up nearly 600,000 square feet across four properties for $89.3 million in the past eight months, according to Bisnow. At a time when many institutional investors are sitting out downtown’s slump, Jemal is leaning in.

The buying spree is unfolding as his family’s empire trims back. Douglas Development sold at least 20 properties in the D.C. area over the past 15 months, shedding 737,000 square feet for $232.6 million. It has also lost assets to foreclosure, including a stretch of Chinatown retail across from Capital One Arena. Another historic office building is headed to auction.

The portfolio reshuffling reflects the bruising reality of D.C.’s central business district, where property values have fallen 47 percent over five years, according to MSCI. But it also underscores a generational shift inside one of the city’s most storied landlord families.

Through a new venture, Jemal Equities, Matthew Jemal is targeting distressed urban office at sharp discounts. In July, he paid $28.8 million, or roughly $213 per square foot, for 1750 H Street NW, a 123,000-square-foot building a few blocks from the White House that had gone through foreclosure. He moved quickly on renovations and leasing, brokers said, personally directing design and deal strategy.

In October, he bought a Rosslyn office building for $28 million, about $160 per square foot. In January, he picked up the 1920s-era Colorado Building near the White House for $20 million, or $150 per square foot.

This month, he took control of the 155,000-square-foot Lion Building near Dupont Circle at a foreclosure sale for $12.5 million, equating to just $81 per square foot.

Jemal’s approach — decisive and hands-on — echoes the playbook of his father, Doug Jemal, who built a 19-million-square-foot empire by betting on overlooked buildings from Chinatown to Ivy City.

The family recently settled a dispute with the federal government after a $1.4 billion Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters deal fell apart, freeing up bandwidth — and perhaps capital — for opportunistic buys.

— Holden Walter-Warner