Description: 10-year lease with the Interational
Spy Museum, which opened July 2002
Size: 130,424 square feet
Developer: Douglas Development
Architect: Shalorn Baranes Associates
Landlord/owner: Jemal's Historic Row
Landlord representative: Douglas Jemal, Douglas
Development
Tenant representative: Charles E. Smith
General contractor: Davis Construction
Financing: Fremont Investment & Loan
Highlights: In 1998, Douglas Development was selected
by the General Services Administration for the acquisition,
renovation and redevelopment of the 800 F Street Historic
Row properties. The five landmark properties were
built over a 17-year period, 1875 to 1892.
Significance of the deal: The opening of the museum
is expected to help lead the resurgence of F Street.
"H&M is going to help anchor the other side
and the other deals we do in Woodies are going to
help," says Black Escherick, broker at Douglas
Development. The museum "was certainly the first
deal to help bring tourists from the Mall to F Street.
That in combination with what we're doing at Woodies
will really be the bookends for one another."
On getting the deal done: "It didn't take a
long time to find this tenant but it did take awhile
to complete this deal," Esherick says. "The
looked at Woodies first and then we brought them over
to 800 F Street and they understood it. It grew from
a 25,000-square-feet museum to almost 65,000 square
feet, and the deal continued to grow. Their appetite
grew as they kept walking thorugh the building...
[The deal] took on a life of its own." Eventually,
the museum ended up with a cafe, a white-tablecloth
restuarant, meeting space and 6,000 square feet of
administrative office space for the museum.
