Penzance

Penzance is a Washington, D.C., real estate owner, developer and fund manager that Julia Springer and Victor Tolkan founded in 1996. It invests across the Mid-Atlantic in multifamily, industrial, data center and other commercial property, and it keeps acquisitions, development, construction management, leasing and property management in-house. The firm says it has managed more than $4.7 billion of gross asset value over its history. Its biggest build so far is The Highlands in Rosslyn, a 1.2 million-square-foot, three-tower mixed-use project. Now it’s turning back to Arlington: Penzance broke ground on Ballston One, converting a 240,000-square-foot office property at 4601 N. Fairfax Drive into a seven-story, 328-unit apartment building that reuses the existing two-level garage. BKV Group is the architect.

Four addresses tell you the footprint

Penzance keeps its geography tight, and the office list shows it. The corporate office sits at 2445 M Street NW, Suite 900, in Washington DC. Management offices run from 50 F Street NW in the District, 2000 14th Street North in Arlington, and 485 Spring Park Place in Herndon, Virginia. Those four locations describe a firm working the Washington metro area directly rather than running it from a distance.

The firm invests two ways: directly, and as a general partner alongside institutional capital providers, which lets it take on deals larger than its own balance sheet while keeping control of execution.

What follows from that is a vertically integrated operating platform. Asset management, property management and leasing sit in-house as a single set of teams, with construction management and development alongside them, so the firm underwrites, builds and then runs what it owns. For a general contractor or trade bidding work, that means the construction decision maker and the owner are the same organisation.

Its stated philosophy is to leave everything better than it found it, framed as creating value for investors, partners and communities together.

The site also publishes an investor login, a tenant portal, the firm’s history, team, investment philosophy, awards and recognition, and its portfolio. Investor enquiries go to investor-relations@pzre.com; the main line is 202.339.8001. Sources: pzre.com homepage and Contact page.