Buchanan Partners Break Ground on 175,000 SF of "Green" Office Condos in Northern Virginia

Washington, DC August 13, 2004 -- Buoyed by rapid sales in its first three office condominium buildings at Dulles Trade Center I in Loudoun County, Virginia, Buchanan Partners has broken ground on three more buildings totaling 175,000 square feet including mezzanine space. The first three buildings totaling 228,000 square feet of space are almost completely sold out; only one unit remains available.

The three new structures will incorporate a number of “green” building features including skylights for natural daylighting, high R-value insulation, and the use of slag cement in base building construction. This “green” product incorporates slag, a byproduct of steel production, which is typically discarded in landfills. The buildings’ other amenities include higher-than-average parking ratios, extensive glass line on the ground and mezzanine level, and mezzanine capability in each unit.

Upon completion in 2006, Dulles Trade Center I will have 750,000 square feet of space (including mezzanine space) in ten low-rise buildings. Construction began speculatively on the first building in 2001. Dulles Trade Center I anchors the Route 606 commercial and industrial corridor just west of Washington Dulles International Airport in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Hubert Construction, LLC is the general contractor for Dulles Trade Center I. Morgan Gick McBeath & Associates of Falls Church, VA is the project architect. Commercial Group Realty is marketing the buildings. Bank of America provided construction financing; Great Point Investors of Boston, MA arranged equity financing.

“We’ve enjoyed great success in bringing flex-office condominium product to the Route 606 corridor, where we’ve benefited from the housing boom in eastern Loudoun County as well as our proximity to the airport,” noted Brian Benninghoff, Principal, Buchanan Partners. “Many of our buyers are contractors serving the homebuilding industry.”

“The market has responded well to Buchanan Partners’ quality product, a lengthy period of low interest rates, and the desire of many business owners to control their long-term property costs,” added Dave Gunter of Commercial Group Realty.

“Dulles Trade Center has been an economic success due to its prime location on Route 606 just west of Dulles airport,” noted Robert Buchanan, Principal, Buchanan Partners. “Route 606 is Loudoun’s only industrial corridor, and a key to future revenue-generating commercial growth in the county. It connects with the Loudoun County Parkway, which will soon join the Tri-County Parkway to form a seamless corridor between Route 7 in the north and Manassas in the south.”

Dulles Trade Center I purchasers include distributors of airplane parts, food, auto parts, and home fixtures; an equipment testing laboratory; a computer software firm; a printer; and various contractors serving the homebuilding industry. Buyers can purchase spaces as small as 3,300 SF, or as large as an entire building.

One recent purchaser is RADinfo Systems, a software development and systems integration company whose 20 employees will move this fall into an 8,155-square-foot space in Building B of Dulles Trade Center I. Company President Dr. Chen-Tai Ma, who had been leasing office space for many years, said that “Loudoun County’s population and infrastructure provide our company the resources to ensure continued growth.”

The entrance to Dulles Trade Center I is marked by a 16-foot granite and steel outdoor sculpture with a “winged” theme that underscores Dulles Trade Center’s proximity and relation to the airport. Titled “Updraft,” this work was commissioned by Buchanan Partners and created by internationally recognized sculptor John Van Alstine of Wells, New York.

The 57-acre Dulles Trade Center I is one of three land parcels totaling over 500 acres acquired five years ago by Buchanan Partners in partnership with Atlantic Realty Partners BV. All three parcels offer close proximity to the airport, the Dulles Greenway, and the planned rail transit station at Route 606.

Dulles Trade Center II, with 86 saleable acres, offers lot sales and build-to-suit opportunities; to date, 15 lots totaling some 50 acres have been sold or placed under contract. Dulles Trade Center III consists of almost 350 acres just west of the airport and bisected by a planned extension of the Loudoun County Parkway; it is slated for future development. The Dulles Trade Center retail center on Route 606, with almost 100,000 square feet of retail space, is under development by Buchanan Partners for delivery in Spring of 2006.

The 20th most active commercial developer in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, according to the Washington Business Journal, Buchanan Partners has developed a portfolio of over 2.5 million square feet of commercial property in the six years since its founding. The portfolio includes office, industrial, flex and retail space projects that have been developed, acquired, approved, or under construction. Buchanan Partners also has acquired, planned or developed over 600 acres of commercial land. For more information, see the company’s Web site at www.buchananpartners.com.

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