Image courtesy of DSC Partners

Former First Potomac Founders Owned Portfolio from 1999 to 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 17, 2018) – DSC Partners LLC, a real estate investment company focused on acquiring value-add properties throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, announced today the acquisition of a portfolio in the Norfolk, Virginia market. The 1.64-million-square-foot portfolio was previously owned by First Potomac Realty Trust (FPO), which DSC founders and partners Douglas Donatelli and Nick Smith founded in 1997 and ran until 2015.

The portfolio consists of a combination of fifteen well located single-story office, flex and industrial properties and represents an opportunity to immediately establish a dominant position in a high barrier to entry market.

“We made our first acquisition in the Hampton Roads region in 1999 and have always enjoyed being part of the strong and growing market. We are thrilled to be buying back these properties, with which we are intimately familiar, and believe these are an ideal opportunity for our growing company,” said Doug Donatelli, co-founder and partner of DSC. “It fits squarely into our model for strategic acquisition across the greater Mid-Atlantic region and allows us to re-establish relationships with brokers, employees and tenants which we have had for almost 20 years.”

Tenants across the 15 buildings include the US Government, Sentara Healthcare, General Dynamics, First Data Corporation, Leidos, Siemens, and Citigroup. The market’s strength comes from the presence of Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest military installation and the Port of Virginia which is the world’s largest deepwater port and a vital part of the US Navy’s infrastructure, as well as a primary driver of the local economy for more than 400 years.

“The performance across the properties is unusually strong with long-term government tenants,” said DSC partner Nick Smith. “The entire portfolio enjoys strong occupancy and we don’t see that changing for the critical niche use in a high-demand area.”

The majority of the portfolio is located in the Greenbrier/Crossway submarket, where market vacancy rates range from 4.7% to 6.9%. The overall portfolio has averaged 91% occupancy over the last 10 years and 93% occupancy the last five years. It sits in the 37th largest US MSA with a population of 1.7 million.

DSC Partners has retained Transwestern to provide property management services and the team led by Perry Frazer and Pat Mugler of CB Richard Ellis of Virginia Inc. will be leasing the properties.

About DSC Partners
DSC Partners LLC, a recently formed commercial real estate venture founded by Douglas Donatelli and Nicholas Smith, acquires commercial real estate properties throughout the Washington metropolitan area, targeting value-add and Class A opportunities. Donatelli and Smith have acquired, developed or repositioned over 20 million square feet of office and industrial properties totaling over $3 billion. For more information, visit dscpartners.com.