Many properties in Northern Virginia have sold for far higher prices than their previous trades or assessed values lately, a trend that even includes traditional offices. 

Store Capital earlier this month, for example, paid about $103 million for 8000 Jones Branch Drive, a three-building, 244,466-square-foot office campus in Tysons, Va., according to Fairfax County records. Basis Independent Schools, a private school subsidiary of seller Spring Education Group, had occupied the building since 2016. The Business Journals first reported the news. 

The price that STORE Capital (which specializes in single-tenant operational real estate, hence the firm’s name) paid for the campus far outweighs its most recent assessed value of $53.5 million. It’s also more than double the $48.6 million that Spring Education Group paid for it in 2021, and triple the $30 million that EPR Properties acquired it for in 2015. The campus is just south of Virginia State Route 267 near its intersection with Interstate 495, and less than a mile away from Freddie Mac’s Virginia headquarters. 

Representatives for Spring Education Group and STORE Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear if the former intends to continue leasing the buildings. 

Real Estate is a hot commodity in Northern Virginia these days for any asset class, though particularly for multifamily and properties serving or hosting almighty data centers. Pacific Urban Investors in December spent $114 million on Park Place at Van Dorn, a 285-unit apartment complex that seller CIM Group had acquired about 22 years earlier for $60.5 million. 

Last summer, meanwhile, local real estate mogul Chuck Kuhn acquired an 84-acre parcel of vacant land — which early last year secured entitlements for data center development — for just under $100 million. Yet Kuhn has a habit of assembling parcels and selling them in quick succession for massive returns. In November, Kuhn sold a 97-acre parcel in the region to SDC Capital Partners for $615 million, after having acquired it in chunks for a collective $57 million. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.