Wal-Marts, it seems, don’t last long in the hands of the firms that develop them.
The Foulger-Pratt Cos. has sold its Georgia Avenue Wal-Mart in Northwest D.C., one of the first to open in the District, to a San Francisco investment management firm for $32.1 million, or roughly $302 per square foot. The sale comes nearly a year after The JBG Cos. sold its 77 H St. NW mixed-use Wal-Mart project, which opened on the same day as 5929 Georgia Ave. NW, last December.
Stockbridge Capital Group bought the 106,243-square-foot Georgia Avenue Wal-Mart from Foulger-Pratt in a deal recorded on Oct. 7 but not publicly reported until now. Foulger-Pratt retained CBRE to market the project to interested buyers a little more than a year ago while it was still under construction. The building is assessed at about $36.9 million, according to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced an ambitious plan in 2010 to open a string of four stores in the District including 77 H St. and 5929 Georgia Ave. as well as a failed attempt on New York Avenue NE at Bladensburg Road. The last of the D.C. Wal-Marts signed a lease earlier this month to open at Skyland Town Center.
The deal is second this year for Stockbridge in the Washington area after it teamed up with Akridge in March on an acquisition in Old Town Alexandria. David Nix of Stockbridge said Washington is a target market for his firm, which boasts about $8 billion in assets under management. Stockbridge hopes to boost its D.C.-area presence to between $100 million and $200 million in the coming year.
Stockbridge acquires properties on behalf of various clients and funds, but as it happens, bought both the Wal-Mart and the Alexandria property on behalf of the same co-mingled fund. A Northwest D.C. retail store might not seem to fit into the same box as a value-add office building in Old Town, but Nix said the two are part of a spectrum of risk for the fund’s investors. Wal-Mart is locked into a 20-year lease for its Georgia Avenue store, with a base rent of $1.6 million a year, so it’s more of a stable, long-term hold. The Alexandria office building was about 75 percent occupied when Akridge and Stockbridge teamed up to buy it, and the partners are planning improvements to boost that number and the rental rate the building commands in the process.
