HMSHost Shrinks Headquarters by Almost 50K SF
Steve Johnson, president and CEO of HMSHost, and 6905 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, Md. PHOTOS: Brian Ach/Getty Images for The New Yorker; G. Edward Johnson/CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The office downsizing trend in and around Washington, D.C., is still in full swing.
HMSHost, which provides dining services to travel-related venues, last quarter signed a renewal and contraction lease for 81,026 square feet at its headquarters in Bethesda, Md. through 2037— down from the 128,872 square feet it previously held at the complex, according to a CP Group spokesperson. The spokesperson for CP Group told Commercial Observer that HMSHost was retaining three of its five five floors at the property.
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“This is the result of us reassessing our physical office space needs following our return to office,” a spokesperson for HMSHost said.
Florida-based developer CP Group is the landlord of the 709,000-square-foot complex, which it calls CapRock, at 6905 Rockledge Drive. CP Group acquired the three-tower complex in 2022 with DRA Advisors for $69.5 million, a relative bargain compared to the nearly $281 million it sold for in 2007, per the Business Journals, which first reported the news of HMSHost’s lease.
“HMS Host’s renewal represents their long-term commitment to CapRock … [we] can attribute part of this decision to our investment in repositioning CapRock as multi-functional workplace,” Josh Edwards, senior vice president of CP Group, said.
News of HMSHost’s new lease is just the latest in a long thread of shrinking real estate footprints in the DMV lately, particularly in D.C. proper. News broke earlier this month that firm ArentFox Schiff had signed a new office lease for 120,000 square feet, a roughly 43 percent reduction from its 208,000-square-foot headquarters just two blocks away.
Then there’s the federal government, which for years has reshuffled and consolidated agencies across the District, such as the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, which will merge several offices into 198,000 square feet at 501 Third Street NW sometime in 2026.
Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.
Update: This story has been updated with new information regarding HMSHost’s lease square footage.
