Sentinel Square, Trammell Crow's Three Phase NoMa Project, Reaches Halfway Point

Trammell Crow's massive three-phase NoMa development, Sentinel Square, is officially at its precise midpoint.

"We just hit the bottom of the hole for Phase 2," says Tom Finan, Managing Director at Trammell Crow.  "Now we're starting to work our way up.  We broke ground back in February and we're on track to deliver in October 2012."

The Phase Two office building, at 1050 First Street, is slated to offer approximately 280,000 square feet of office space over twelve stories.

The Smith Group/JJR-designed building may or may not feature ground floor retail space.  "That's something we're going to look at," says Finan.  "It's going to depend on the market.  That intersection is becoming a sort of crossroads for that area, so it might be a good idea.  But as of right now, it's still up in the air."

The first phase, a similar but larger 12-story 400,000-s.f. LEED Gold office tower, also designed by Smith Group/JJR, was delivered in June 2010.  The third and final phase, another office building, is still in pre-planning stages.

"We're not going to really get down to Phase Three until we have the second phase delivered and leased and stabilized," Finan said.

Sentinel Square II was financed on spec by European companies Helaba and Nord LB, which collectively put up $181 million towards completion.  Though financing a project of this scale on spec is somewhat unusual (but so were 1812 N. Moore and CityCenter), investors were reportedly reassured by the fact that Trammell Crow has already leased 85% of Sentinel Square I, to such tenants as the Department of Veteran Affairs, and other federal agencies.

Washington D.C. real estate development news