The July 24 Greenbelt City Council worksession was to have been a brainstorming session about what to do next in light of the General Services Administration’s decision to cancel the project to build a new FBI facility, possibly at the Greenbelt Metro Station. However, two other items had to be added to the meeting, leaving little time to brainstorm (see separate story). Instead, much of council’s time was occupied by problems in building a connecting path from the new development at the Greenbelt Metro Station (also a separate story) and a proposal for townhouse development next to Capitol Office Park and the Federal District Courthouse on Cherrywood Lane. Because of the large number of people in attendance for this matter, it became the first item to be considered by council. History All the land north of Cherrywood Lane between Kenilworth Avenue and the Capital Beltway was a part of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, except for three privately held small parcels totaling 15.9 acres that for many years have been owned by the owners of Capital Office Park. The courthouse was built on a portion of Beltsville Agricultural Research Center land. The three privately held parcels are within the city limits and originally purchased by the Federal government for the Greenbelt project in the mid-1930s. When the government sold Greenbelt in the early 1950s, a partnership acquired these parcels and the land that became Capital Office Park. Later, the partnership was restructured with some developing the hotel that is now a Marriott. The remainder developed the office park in the 1980s, but not the three parcels. Subsequently the partnership sold Capital Office Park and the three parcels to Mack-Cali, a real estate investment trust, and more recently Mack-Cali put all its Greenbelt land up for sale. John Pellerito, director of Cushman-Wakefield, a commercial real estate broker, told council of its brokering the sale of the office park in 2016 at a time when there was a high vacancy rate in the suburban commercial office building market and this office park was only 60 percent leased. CushmanWakefield sent notices of the sale offering to 3,600 potential buyers, heard from 13 and received three bids. The office park was sold to Morning Calm Management, LLC, of West Palm Beach, Fla., according to Pellerito, for $49,000,000 or $61.75 per square foot, far less than the estimated building replacement cost of $240 per square foot.
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