Koll Expands to East Coast, Plans 2 Joint Office Projects

Koll Development Co. of Newport Beach said Monday it has opened its first East Coast office in suburban Washington and has entered a joint venture to build two speculative office projects at a combined cost of $60 million.

Koll joined Metropolitan Partnership Ltd. to acquire two land parcels and to build two office projects totaling more than 400,000 square feet at a time when vacancy rates in the region are at their lowest levels in years.

A 7.6-acre site in Fairfax County, Va., was purchased from Virginia-based Crimson Partners for $4.8 million. The companies plan to build a five-story, $25-million project that they hope to complete by mid-1999.

They also agreed to buy a 10-acre parcel in Reston, Va., for $7.8 million from the National Assn. of Letter Carriers for construction of a five-story building for $35 million.

This represents Koll’s third expansion this year into markets outside of California. The company, which has developed more than 50 commercial projects this year at a cost of more than $1 billion, previously opened offices in Denver and Malaysia.

Metropolitan Partnership has built more than 2 million square feet of industrial projects over the last 13 years, including Fairfax Square, an office and retail project in Tyson’s Corner, Va., and the retail reconfiguration of Times Square Plaza in New York.