Monday, August 13, 2007

The District is seeking to make the emerging NoMa (north of Massachusetts Avenue) neighborhood, just north of Union Station and Capitol Hill, a national hot spot for green commercial development.

The area was accepted last week into a pilot program by the U.S. Green Building Council that creates the first national rating system for neighborhood design. The council offers ratings for buildings through its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. The new LEED for Neighborhood Development program intends to encourage "emphasis on the design and construction elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and relate the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape," a report by the council said.

Twenty million square feet are being designed to meet LEED building criteria, according to the city.

The Calvert Village Marketplace in Prince Frederick has been sold for $14.5 million to Edens and Avant, a commercial real estate firm, according to the brokerage firm Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers, which represented the seller. The Calvert Village Limited Partnership was the previous owner of the 160,773-square-foot center on Solomons Island Road.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin leased 35,500 square feet of office space at Bethesda-based Washington Property Co.'s 4 Research Pl. The 81,866-square-foot building which sits on 5.4 acres off Interstate 270 in North Rockville, is now completely leased.

Alejandro Lazo covers commercial real estate. His e-mail address islazoa@washpost.com.