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WeWork, local partner buy DC office building for $137M
Co-working company partners with Meridian Group for 133 New Hampshire Avenue NW
A WeWork-affiliated real estate fund is buying a Washington, D.C. office building in partnership with Meridian Group for $136.5 million.
WeWork Property Advisors, which WeWork manages with private equity firm Rhone Group, is contributing 50 percent of the equity, Bisnow reported. The 350,000-square-foot building at 1333 New Hampshire Avenue NW in Dupont Circle is currently occupied by law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which will be moving out. The seller is Boston Properties.
WeWork will lease 100,000 square feet in the building and turn it into a co-working space.
The joint venture secured a $151 million loan from a subsidiary of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, according to Bisnow. Of the total, $84 million will go toward the acquisition of the property.
Last year, WeWork Property Advisors signed a contract to buy the Lord & Taylor building in Manhattan for $850 million. That deal has yet to close. The fund also bought a 50 percent stake in the Devonshire Square Estate office complex in London.
Meanwhile ARK, another investment fund managed by WeWork, has been in talks to buy a massive development site in Austin, Texas.
In October, reports surfaced that SoftBank was considering investing up to $20 billion in WeWork and becoming the majority shareholder. Masa Son’s firm has already invested over $5 billion into the co-working company. [Bisnow] — Konrad Putzier