A 168,000 square-foot development broke ground Tuesday at 1200 17th Street, two blocks south of Dupont Circle, on the site formerly occupied by the National Restaurant Association.
The 11-story office building being developed by Akridge and Mitsui Fudosan America will house Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, one of downtown Washington’s biggest law firms.
In late January,
the firm signed a lease to occupy 105,000 square feet of the new building, cutting by almost half its current space at 2300 N St. NW. The luxury structure will feature floor-to-ceiling glass, a green roof, and ground-floor retail.
"When people look at the office market and they say 'what is taking place, what’s happening in Washington, D.C.,' trophy-class office property are leasing nicely,” Brian Connolly, Akridge senior vice president, says about the city’s changing real estate market.
A fourth quarter 2012 office space
survey by Cassidy Turley, a commercial real estate services firm, says higher quality spaces in D.C. have outperformed lower ones. But in a city where nearly 25 percent of privately owned office space is leased by the federal government, "the uncertainty surrounding the deficit…weighed heavily on the region all year long.”
Connolly, however, says that Washington’s current real estate market is in “very good” health.
The company is pursuing LEED Platinum certification, and plans to deliver the building in the fourth quarter of 2014.