In $180M Deal, TIAA-CREF Takes Washington’s Evening Star Building

The nation’s capital continues to draw eager office buyers. On Wednesday, the giant institutional investor TIAA-CREF closed on the $180 million acquisition of the Evening Star building from KanAm Grund, the Frankfurt-based investment manager, sources familiar with the deal confirmed today.

Located at 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, a few blocks from the White House and the National Mall, the fully leased 225,501-square-foot office property (pictured) was the long-time home of the newspaper known most recently as the Washington Star. The building was the newspaper’s  home when it went out of business in 1981. Tenants include Citigroup Inc., International Paper Co., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and TIAA-CREF itself.

The building’s price is among the highest paid for an office property in Washington, D.C., this year, even though it hardly ranks among the city’s newest office assets. Built in 1898, the Evening Star building is said to be the second-oldest building on Pennsylvania Avenue after the White House. In 1989, the property underwent expansion and renovation.

Attribution: Paul Rosta, cpexecutive.com/
Full story: Deal

Looking for an experimental modern mystery to read at the beach?  Amazon yesterday published an e-book (Kindle) and paperback from Star alumnus Bill Grigg called A PERFECTLY NATURAL MURDER.
It is uniquely told by three participants, a raunchy ex-Marine with post-traumatic stress disorder, a witty woman lawyer — and the dead victim!   It is set in a  insurance company, and Bill reports many of its ideas stem from his late wife, Martha Livdahl, who was the  director of employee publications at GEICO..  (Martha also worked at The Star.  In the book, the discovery of fraud leads to a nearly perfect, "green" murder for which the ex-Marine and the lawyer get blamed, battered and targeted for death themselves.  The imperfect  hero is trying to clean up his car but says, “Give me some slack, please!  It’s not like you never heard the word before!”
You can read a free sample of  A PERFECTLY NATURAL MURDER by Googling  Amazon books, putting in the book’s name and then  clicking on the book’s cover., If you read the book and like it, please leave a review on Amazo, as positive reviews spur sales!
Bill was The Star’s medical writer, covered the Senate and then was press aide and chef of staff for Congressmen Gilbert Gude and Newton Steers.