A 13-story office tower that once housed Carr Properties' headquarters just changed hands for a fraction of what it was worth a decade ago. Jemal Equities paid $45 million for the 417,000-square-foot building at 1615 L St. NW, according to D.C. deed records, closing out a years-long slide for a property that was appraised at $213 million back in 2013.
A Deal Years in the Making
As first reported by Bisnow, the sale closed after a D.C. Superior Court judge approved a receiver's sale of the building in July, per court records. Two entities tied to the deal, 1615 L FS LLC and Jemal's RI 1615 LLC, borrowed $48 million from NEG Financing I LLC for the purchase, according to the same deed records, with $45 million of those loan proceeds going toward the acquisition itself.
The building's fall from grace traces back to Carr Properties, which purchased 1615 L St. NW for $229 million in 2016 and assumed a two-piece $134 million CMBS loan to finance the buy. Carr failed to pay off that debt when it matured in September 2023, and a D.C. court appointed Trigild as receiver in July 2024. The receiver has controlled the property ever since, according to the Bisnow report.
Emptying Floors and a Shrinking Appraisal
The building's occupancy told the story of its decline. It stood at 67.6% at the end of 2024, then started bleeding tenants fast: a two-floor tenant left in January 2025, a full-floor tenant followed in April, and another full-floor departure came in August, per Bisnow's reporting. By September 2026, special servicer commentary filed in Morningstar Credit's database pegged the building's leased space at just 27.6%. Its appraised value had likewise collapsed to $51 million as of October 2025, according to the same Morningstar Credit database.
Trigild brought in Cushman & Wakefield to lease the building in July 2025. The brokerage was formally named exclusive leasing agent that August 20, describing 1615 L Street as a premier 430,000-square-foot office building and noting roughly 300,000 square feet was available, including more than 200,000 contiguous square feet on the upper floors. Cushman & Wakefield's Michael Katcher pointed to the building's repositioning, saying it had undergone more than $30 million in base-building and amenity upgrades since 2018. The 1984-built tower sits one block from the Farragut North Metro station, per Bisnow.
Carr's Pivot Away From the Property
Carr Properties occupied the building as its headquarters until the company moved to Midtown Center in 2026, Bisnow reported. The departure fits a broader retreat: Carr transferred three D.C. assets to a J.P. Morgan Asset Management fund in a mid-2025 equity buyout and sold at least two other D.C.-area office buildings, 4500 East-West Highway in Bethesda and 901 K St. NW in Washington, around the same time. The company is now shifting its focus to multifamily development, according to the same report.
A Buying Spree Amid D.C.'s Office Slump
Jemal Equities, founded last year by Matthew Jemal, has been on an acquisition tear even as the deal closed. Jemal, the youngest son of Douglas Development Corp. founder Douglas Jemal, leads a firm that has purchased at least four other office buildings in D.C. proper over the past year, per Bisnow's reporting. That includes paying $92.3 million for a BXP office building on Connecticut Avenue anchored by Steptoe in October 2026, and $93 million for a Navy Yard office building in May 2026. A separate Bisnow deal sheet put the combined price of four other D.C.-area office purchases, at least three of them through Jemal Equities, at $89.3 million for 598,000 square feet. The firm launched its website during the week of November 5, 2026, listing office, retail, hotel and multifamily holdings.
Jemal Equities and Carr Properties did not respond to requests for comment, according to Bisnow's reporting. The buying spree is unfolding against a bruising backdrop for D.C. office landlords: vacancy citywide rose to 23.5% in the third quarter of 2026, up 20 basis points from the prior quarter and 140 basis points year over year, according to Cushman & Wakefield's latest MarketBeat report. The market posted 123,800 square feet of negative absorption in the quarter, with losses concentrated in the CBD and West End/Georgetown submarkets, while average full-service asking rents slipped to $55.15 per square foot, down 20 cents from a year earlier.
Context From Other Distressed Sales
The 1615 L Street transaction echoes other recent moves in Jemal's portfolio. The firm's purchase of 99 M St. SE, a 235,000-square-foot trophy building in Navy Yard, came years after Polinger Co. bought that property from developer Skanska at the end of 2019 for $163 million — a steep markdown pattern similar to what played out at 1615 L Street. Matthew Jemal's company also bought a Navy Yard office building in May 2026, and Bisnow cited a $92.3 million price for the Dupont Circle BXP deal.
