Finmarc pays $77.5M for 70%-leased Tysons office towers

Finmarc Management has closed on the $77.5 million purchase of Highline at Greensboro, twin 10-story office towers in the Tysons Corner submarket of Northern Virginia, Connect CRE reports. The portfolio at 8401 and 8405 Greensboro Drive totals roughly 460,000 square feet and was 70 percent leased and occupied at closing.

At about $168 per square foot, the buyer is taking on a building that is 30 percent empty. The vacancy works out to roughly 138,000 square feet, and whether this is a smart trade or a costly one depends entirely on filling that space. The two towers are a matched pair, so Finmarc can run one leasing program across both buildings rather than juggling two distinct products.

The vacancy pitch gets a boost from the property's address. The Boro, a walkable retail complex anchored by Whole Foods Market and offering 250,000 square feet of restaurants and shops, sits adjacent to the towers. A prospective tenant can walk to lunch, run errands, and find a sense of place without getting into a car. That gives Finmarc a concrete story to tell in the leasing market.

CIM Group was the seller, represented by Cushman & Wakefield's Paul Collins and Kevin Sidney. Aaron Rosenfeld of Kelley Drye & Warren provided legal services to Finmarc, and Cliff Mendelson of Metropolis Capital Advisors assisted with the debt placement.

This is a value-add trade built around a single variable: lease-up. The price leaves no margin for a long, slow absorption period, so the returns depend on converting the foot traffic The Boro generates into signed leases. The amenity complex is the anchor of that argument. If Finmarc fills the empty floors, the $77.5 million basis will look cheap. If not, the towers become a longer hold with carrying costs and an expensive lesson in location risk.