The leading owner and operator of office and business park properties in the greater Washington D.C. region, First Potomac Trust, has announced the sale of the seven-building, 256,000 square foot Newington Business Park Center in Lorton, Virginia, for gross proceeds of $32.5 million.
According to their press release in PR Newswire, the sale of industrial property is part of the plan to de-risk the portfolio, strengthen its balance sheet and reduce corporate overhead through the accelerated sale of at least $200 million of assets. First Potomac Realty Trust will utilize the proceeds from the sale of the Newington Business Park Center by funding a portion of the 2.2 million preferred share redemption that was announced by the company last Dec. 18, 2015, and is scheduled to occur on Jan. 19, 2016.
"The sale of Newington Business Park Center and redeployment of the proceeds demonstrates that we are successfully executing on our previously announced plan to monetize select assets and improve the Company's balance sheet," said Robert Milkovich, CEO of First Potomac Realty Trust. "We are continuing to execute on phase one of our strategic plan and look forward to announcing the sale of additional assets in the weeks and months ahead. We are on track to dispose of at least $200 million of assets, and we remain confident that we are taking the right steps to improve performance and create substantial value for our shareholders."
HFF, a leading provider of commercial real estate and capital markets services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry, represented First Potomac during the transaction.
First Potomac Realty Trust is a Maryland-based real estate investment trust (REIT) that focuses on owning, operating, developing and redeveloping commercial real estate in the greater Washington, D.C. region. At present, the company has a portfolio of over eight million square feet, primarily located in the Washington, D.C. market.
