WASHINGTON — D.C.-based Washington Real Estate Investment Trust will buy 600 New Hampshire Avenue in Northwest, an office building in the Watergate complex, for $135 million.
The real estate investment company expects to close on the acquisition next month.
The office building, known as Watergate 600, is not the same Watergate office building where the infamous break-in occurred that started President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. That office building, at 2600 Virginia Avenue NW, is one of six separate structures that make up the Watergate complex.
600 Watergate, the headquarters for Atlantic Media, publisher of The Atlantic, is a 12-story, 309,000 square-foot building that opened in 1972 and is currently 97 percent leased.
An affiliate of Atlantic Media is also the current owner of the building, according to the Washington Business Journal.
“The acquisition of Watergate 600 exemplifies Washington REIT’s office strategy of acquiring high-quality, urban, metro-centric assets that further increase our footprint within prime locations in the District,” said Paul McDermott, Washington REIT’s CEO.
The building underwent a renovation in 1997 and is currently undergoing a second round of renovations that Washington REIT said it will complete.
Atlantic Media will remain headquartered at the building. Its 140,000 square-foot lease runs through late 2027.
The Watergate Hotel, which sat empty for nearly a decade, reopened last summer after a major renovation.
