Northrop Grumman Corp. is buying a 14-story office building in Northern Virginia for its new corporate headquarters, according to a Walls Street Journal report.
The defense giant, which announced plans to move from Los Angeles earlier this year, decided to buy property rather than lease it, seen by some as an unusual move. Also, out of a multitude of possibilities in the current weak real-estate market, Northrop chose an older office building in Falls Church, Va.
The ING Office Fund, an Australian real-estate investment trust affiliated with ING Groep NV of Amsterdam, will sell the 14-story building it partially owns to Northrop for at least $78.6 million but not more than the $105 million, an ING spokesman said. Some brokers expect the price to be as low as $90 million. The ING venture paid Verizon Communications $105 million for the building in 2007.
• Read the full Wall Street Journ story.
• Read the full Washington Business Journal story.
