Metro News Release

For immediate release: September 27, 2007

Metro sells Southeastern Bus Garage

Metro has found a buyer for its 71-year-old bus garage and employee parking lot located a block away from the planned Washington Nationals baseball stadium in southeast D.C. The transit agency’s Board agreed today to sell 2.2 acres to the John Akridge Development Company for more than $69 million.

Metro put the M Street property up for sale over the summer with the asking price of at least $60 million. The transit agency received three bids by the end of August. The winning bid was the most advantageous in terms of price and leaseback rental, Metro managers said.

Revenue from the sale will help fund the construction of a new garage and proposed police training facility, which is expected to be built at D.C. Village in southwest Washington within the next three years. Metro plans to vacate the current property by late winter. Employees and buses will temporarily move to other Metro bus garages in the region.

The two parcels at 17 M Street, SW are just one block from the new Washington Nationals ballpark and adjacent to the Navy Yard Metro station. The parcels are 69,607 and 27,558 square feet and are separated by Van Street. A one-story brick industrial building, which houses 114 buses and was built in 1936, sits on the larger piece of land.

News release issued at 12:00 am, September 27, 2007.