From The Washington Post:
Even the pros are taking a beating. The Mortgage Bankers Association, its membership expert in real estate, sold its $90 million headquarters in downtown Washington on Friday for $41 million.
The three-year-old, 10-story building at 1331 L St. NW — built just before the office market soured — was bought by the CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information firm that plans to move its headquarters from Bethesda to the District. The city, which has been negotiating with CoStar for several months, offered the company a $6 million break on its property taxes to lure it from Maryland.
“We have a huge demand for space for our headquarters. This was too great an opportunity to pass up,” said Andrew Florance, chief executive of CoStar Group. “It’s a quality building at a rock-bottom price,” he added. “We think we’ll save tens of millions of dollars over the next decade.”
The sale comes as commercial real estate troubles are rapidly multiplying in the Washington area. At least 20 percent of commercial properties in the region are worth less than their mortgages, experts say, compared with less than 1 percent before the recession. Link to article…