An office building planned at the Navy Yard Metro station is being delayed by at least a year because the builder has been unable to find financing for the project in a stingy credit market for office developments.
On Thursday Metro’s Joint Development and Real Estate Committee approved a one-year extension of the closing date to December 2011 for the sale of the Metro-owned land to the developer.
Representatives from the developer NJA Associates, an affiliate of longtime D.C. development firm the Donohoe Companies, declined comment. But Metro officials said a weak economy had kept the developer from getting financing for the project.
The project is a 211,000-square-foot office building that will tower over the Navy Yard Station’s entrance at New Jersey Avenue and M Street Southeast. The building, which also includes plans for ground floor retail, will replace a church parking lot.
Michael Stevens, executive director of the Capitol Riverfront BID, said tightened lending for new projects has stalled development in the area and nationwide. He noted another developer was still working on leasing Phase I of a planned three-phase development.
Nationally, lenders are requiring more money down and a greater percentage of signed tenants before they finance an office development, said Brant Bryan, a principal at CresaPartners Capital Markets.
“Things that used to be 50 to 60 percent pre-leased to break ground are now 80 percent,” he said. Metro’s original expected completion date for the building was 2009, according to the Capitol Riverfront Site Plan.
