Insight Property Group has taken control of an already approved office-to-residential conversion in Old Town Alexandria, paying $7.1M for the 147K SF, six-story building at 2051 Jamieson Ave. The Arlington-based developer plans to convert the property into roughly 180 units, according to Tim White, the company's principal and chief investment officer. The transaction matters because it shows how deeply office values have reset in the D.C. region: the purchase price is about 11% of the $65.8M that Kapolei, Hawaii-based James Campbell Co. paid for the 2003-era building in 2008, as reported by the Washington Business Journal. For Insight, the deal also extends a strategy that has moved from opportunistic office acquisitions to a core business line alongside ground-up multifamily work.
The mechanics of the deal rest on an existing entitlement rather than a fresh approval process. The approved conversion plan allows for a four-story addition with two options: 187 residential units, or 181 residential units with a floor of retail. That approval was granted in November and was spearheaded by Red Fox Development on behalf of James Campbell, White said; Red Fox is no longer involved. JLL had been marketing the property since at least February, according to the Washington Business Journal. Patrick Sullivan, who joined Insight as head of acquisitions this year after more than a decade at MRP Realty, led the deal. White framed the acquisition as part of a deliberate expansion: "This is Insight's sixth office acquisition. What began as an opportunistic move has become a core part of the business alongside our ground-up multifamily work, and we are actively looking for additional office buildings across the D.C. metro for similar execution."
The seller's stated rationale is supported by an emailed statement from James Campbell Co. Chief Operating Officer Claudia Walraven: "This transaction was completed as part of our long-standing strategy to reduce our exposure to office assets across the country and further concentrate our portfolio in other property types, particularly industrial." The source for this deal is a single Bisnow article read in full, and the article itself relies in part on Washington Business Journal reporting and LinkedIn announcements. That means key figures such as the $65.8M prior acquisition price and the marketing timeline are secondary attributions rather than independently verified records. The dossier does not include the original deed records, the full entitlement documents, or the seller's current book value, so the precise loss realized by James Campbell Co. cannot be calculated from the available evidence.
The Old Town transaction sits within a broader set of D.C.-area capital markets signals documented in the same deal sheet. In multifamily sales, MAA sold a 269-unit apartment building near Thomas Circle for $147M, with Goldman Sachs as the buyer of 1499 Massachusetts Ave. NW and a $70M loan from the New York State Teachers' Retirement System, according to D.C. deed records cited by the Washington Business Journal. In Ballston, a trio of investors sold the 189K SF office building at 4075 Wilson Blvd. to Piedmont Realty Trust for $52.7M, nearly double the $27.6M cash price the partnership paid in September 2024. On the financing side, Carr Properties secured a $92M construction loan for its 299-unit office-to-residential redevelopment at 2121 Virginia Ave. NW in Foggy Bottom, with PNC Bank as lead lender and administrative agent, debt from United Bank, and Berkadia advising. These transactions collectively indicate that capital is still moving into residential conversion and multifamily assets even as legacy office owners exit at steep discounts.
The evidence base also points to public-sector and affordability activity that shapes the conversion pipeline. Montgomery Housing Partnership completed The Chimes, a 163-unit affordable apartment building near the North Bethesda Metro station, an $86M project reserving units for families earning 30% to 80% of area median income or less. The development received a $2.2M grant from the Amazon Housing Fund and secured 9% and 4% tax credit awards. Meanwhile, Trammell Crow Co. started construction on a 95K SF flex warehouse in Rockville, replacing a vacant office building at 7500 Standish Place, with completion expected in the fourth quarter of 2027. What remains unknown from the single-source record is whether Insight's $7.1M basis includes assumption of any liabilities, the projected total development cost for the Old Town conversion, or the expected timeline for construction and lease-up. Those details will determine whether the 11%-of-2008-price entry point translates into a viable residential project or merely reflects the depth of the office repricing.