A mixed-use portfolio in Old Town Alexandria that Asana Partners assembled between 2016 and 2018 and invested $20M to renovate has hit the market.

Asana owns 815 1/2 King Street in Old Town, Alexandria

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm is looking to sell a 21-building portfolio totaling just over 200K SF on and around Alexandria’s historic King Street commercial corridor, according to a JLL Capital Markets brochure.

JLL Senior Director Daniel Naughton announced the listing last week in a LinkedIn post, saying it represents the largest-ever assemblage of properties on King Street. 

JLL didn’t respond to a request for comment, and Asana declined to comment.

The low-rise buildings include national retailers Sephora, Ben & Jerry’s, Alo Yoga, Emmy Squared, Patagonia, and Warby Parker. Its office tenants include Compass Real Estate, KVS Title and Sourced Intelligence, and it has at least 38 apartment units.

The portfolio is 76% leased, according to the brochure, with the retail portion 94% leased, the office 49% leased and the residential portion 95% leased. 

Two of the properties, a 6,500 SF building at 900 Prince St. and a 4,500 SF building at 1104 King St. are fully vacant, and 12 of the properties are fully leased, JLL brochure says. 

The brokerage breaks up the portfolio into “Lower King” with five assets, “Middle King” with 11 assets and “Upper King” with five assets. 

JLL’s Danny Naughton, Jordan Lex, Danny Finkle and Dave Baker are the investment sales advisers marketing the property, and Evan Parker is the financing adviser. 

Asana acquired at least 15 of the properties between December 2016 and July 2017, Bisnow first reported at the time. It purchased the first eight properties at the end of 2016 for $40M from PMA Properties. It purchased six more totaling 35K SF for $21.9M in August 2017. 

By the end of 2017, the company had spent $115M to acquire 23 properties totaling 210K SF on and just off of King Street, Asana Managing Partner Reed Kracke told Bisnow in a December 2017 interview.

Kracke said the stretch had “so many of the factors that are compelling for retailers today,” pointing to factors like income levels and density.

“The buildings are really irreplaceable historic buildings that have been around — some since the 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s,” he said in the 2017 interview. “The authenticity of the buildings on the street is not something you can re-create.”

Old Town Alexandria’s 719K SF of high-street retail space has a 5.84% vacancy rate, according to Dochter & Alexander Retail Advisors’ latest market report released last month. Its 5M SF of office space is 17.6% vacant, according to CBRE’s Northern Virginia first-quarter office report.

Asana has $7B in “neighborhood assets under management” across 25 cities, according to its website. In D.C., Asana also owns Sam’s Park and Shop, a 50K SF strip shopping center on Connecticut Avenue in Cleveland Park, which it purchased from Federal Realty for $39M in 2021.