A 120,750-square-foot office complex at 1750 Forest Drive in Annapolis sold this week for about $19.5 million, marking one of the region's more notable office trades this spring. The campus, once the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund headquarters, was repositioned in recent years into Class A space with a dramatic three-story atrium and updated tenant amenities. Buyers were described in the report as private investors who picked up the property after it was marketed last year.
As reported by the Baltimore Business Journal, Melody Simmons wrote that the building changed hands for roughly $19.5 million and identified the buyer as a group of private investors. That account, published April 22, 2026, provided the first public confirmation of the sale price and timing.
After a multimillion-dollar repositioning
According to Hyatt Commercial, developers Manekin and Blue Vista Capital Management invested more than $20 million between 2017 and 2019 to convert the former state office into an amenity-forward office campus. That repositioning included a new façade, expanded glazing, and a three-story atrium with 22-foot skylights intended to attract federal, medical, and technology tenants. Marketing materials framed the upgrades as a value-creation move designed to command higher rents than other products in the submarket.
Tenants and occupancy
Public listing materials show the asset was about 76% leased heading into the sale, with a weighted average lease term of about seven years and a tenant mix that includes federal agencies and medical users. The LoopNet listing positioned the property as a "trophy" office with roughly 24% vacancy and room to lift returns through lease-up.
Local records and city reaction
State property records list the parcel under Forest Drive Holdings LLC, the Manekin-led partnership that executed the repositioning, and show the site sits on roughly 8.19 acres in Anne Arundel County. The Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation maintains the public account for the property and its assessment history. Local coverage of the building's 2019 ribbon-cutting noted city officials welcomed the reuse of the former MAIF site and projected millions in new annual tax revenue once the conversion was fully assessed, according to Eye On Annapolis.
Market context
Marketing materials pitched the property as offering stable in-place cash flow alongside upside from leasing the remaining space, citing a weighted average lease term of about 6.9 years and a submarket vacancy near 7.6%. "1750 Forest Drive represents the best of both worlds, strong in-place cash flow with significant upside potential," the marketing release said. For investors, the combination of federal tenants and medical users diminishes concentration risk while leaving room to increase net operating income through lease-up.
The $19.5 million trade closes a chapter on the site's public-to-private conversion and hands a stabilized, albeit partly vacant, asset to new owners who now control one of Forest Drive's higher-profile office campuses. Leasing and management moves over the next year will show how much of that remaining upside the new ownership can capture.
