Global Holdings Management Group has signed four new pre-leases for its prominent Washington Harbour mixed-use office complex in Georgetown, pending the completion of a major renovation it has underway there.
The New York-headquartered company on Tuesday announced four new deals comprising 21,000 square feet. The tenants will move in “as soon as possible,” between June and October, a spokesperson told me in an email, as Global Holdings wraps up an 80,000-square-foot renovation across three floors at 3000 K St NW.
Here are details of the leases, combining info from a press release with additional info the spokesperson provided:
- Cowen Inc., or TD Cowen, an investment bank and division of TD Securities, signed an 8,000-square-foot lease. That firm is moving over from 2900 K St. NW, adjacent to Washington Harbour to the east, and of which the owner of the office portion recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- Law firm Foster Garvey PC signed for 6,000 square feet. It’s relocating from 1000 Potomac St. NW, Georgetown’s Flour Mill building, which recently lost another longtime tenant to Reston.
- Services firm Martek Global Services Inc. is taking 4,000 square feet, relocating from 7920 Norfolk Ave. in Bethesda.
- iDiscovery Solutions, another services firm, signed for 3,000 square feet, moving from elsewhere within Washington Harbour.
The renovation, designed by D.C. architecture firm sshape, will result in 16 move-in ready office suites with a shared conference center and lounge. It’s anticipated to be completed in the third quarter.
Tenants today want “office space that allows them to move in with as little down time, planning, and resources as possible,” Craig Panzirer, a Global Holdings senior vice president and its director of leasing, said in the release.
The complex is presently about 85% leased overall, including both office and retail, the spokesperson told me.
Overall office occupancy District-wide sits at about 80%, according to a first quarter report from brokerage JLL. Global Holdings calls Washington Harbour a trophy asset on its website, despite the building having been constructed in the 1980s. JLL’s report puts trophy occupancy in the District at about 89%.
Global Holdings was celebratory in its press release announcing the new leases. Another tenant, of Washington Harbour’s retail portion, is likely looking forward to these tenants’ arrivals just as much.
Washington Harbour “is not anywhere near as vibrant as it once was” as an office destination, Ark Restaurants Corp. (NASDAQ: ARKR) Chairman and CEO Michael Weinstein us in March, citing hybrid work and fewer tenants. Ark owns and operates Sequoia, a 26,000-square-foot restaurant on Washington Harbour’s ground floor, leased there through 2035.
Last year Kelley Drye & Warren LLP announced it would leave 107,000 square feet at Washington Harbour, representing about a fifth of the property’s 560,000 square feet, and downsize into new space at The Wharf, with occupancy targeted for late 2025. The law firm has called Washington Harbour home for almost 20 years.
Global Holdings wouldn’t comment on Kelley Drye’s move.
