Poland Buys University Office Building for Conversion

The Republic of Poland plans to convert a university building it acquired for less than its assessed value to house its embassy and offices.

Poland bought the nearly 59,000-square-foot building at 1740 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C., in late December for $20.1 million, according to CoStar data. The purchase price is well below the building's assessed value of $42.5 million, according to the D.C. tax office.

Johns Hopkins University sold the nine-story property. The Nitze Building, as JHU called it, was built in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in the 1960s, according to CoStar research.

Poland already has plans in the works for its new property about 1 1/2 miles from its current embassy at 2640 16th St. "This property was purchased as part of a plan to consolidate Poland’s representation in Washington, D.C.," the Polish embassy told the Washington Business Journal. "Following renovations, redecoration, and adjustments to meet diplomatic security requirements and other needs, the new property will house the Embassy, the Consular Section, and the Office of the Defense Attaché."

Poland's purchase comes nearly three years after the Republic of Serbia acquired an office buildingnear the White House to be its new embassy in the United States.

The move by the university to dispose of the property follows Johns Hopkins' shift of its D.C. operations to the former Newseum building, now known as the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. The school, whose main campus is in Baltimore, welcomed students to its 420,000-square-foot space in Washington in August 2023, about three years after it purchased the Newseum building for more than $300 million.

Hopkins is planning to sell two other Dupont Circle-area properties, either together or separately, at 1619 and 1717 Massachusetts Ave., according to marketing material from Cushman & Wakefieldand Civitas Commercial Real Estate Services. The brokerages are marketing the properties as part of what they call the Embassy Row Collection.

Hopkins said in 2020 that the future sale of its university buildings on Massachusetts Avenue would help finance the purchase of its 555 Pennsylvania Ave.

The Polish embassy did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment from CoStar News. A university spokesperson confirmed the sale but wasn't immediately available to elaborate further.

Shaun Weinberg, Paul Collins and Laurie McMahon of Cushman & Wakefield were the listing brokers for 1740 Massachusetts Ave. Edward Flenner of Transwestern represented the buyer, according to CoStar data.