Paul McDermott, president and CEO of Washington REIT (NYSE: WRE), joined Nareit for a video interview at REITworld 2017.
Washington REIT owns and operates office, retail and multifamily real estate assets in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region.
According to McDermott, one of the company’s distinguishing attributes is its dedication to research, which enables it to analyze opportunities in terms of the broad, long-term structural demand dynamics for multiple real estate sectors.
McDermott highlighted the REIT’s acquisition earlier this year of 600 New Hampshire Avenue, an office building located within the Watergate complex in the West End submarket of Washington, D.C. The building is one of only three buildings with panoramic views of the Potomac River, according to McDermott.
As with several of its other key properties, Washington REIT had a vision for restoring 600 New Hampshire Avenue to its original glory, McDermott explained. “We like taking on calculated leasing risk…so you should expect us to try to do more of these,” he said.
The company has also been active in working to improve its balance sheet side, McDermott said. “We’re trying to position the balance sheet to be able to opportunistically go after some of the deals that we think are coming,” he explained. McDermott added that Washington REIT has a “pretty full pipeline of opportunities” that it is pursuing.