One of the nation’s leading specialty health-care systems has been signed as the first tenant in the former Discovery Inc. headquarters in Silver Spring.
Washington-based Children’s National Health System has agreed to a 15-year lease for four floors of the 10-story building at 1 Discovery Place, the companies confirmed Wednesday.
The move is part of a larger plan by Children’s to consolidate offices, spread among about three dozen locations throughout the region. Taking about a quarter of the 550,000-square-foot building’s available space, Children’s plans to bring administrative employees to the site, beginning in 2020, according to a spokeswoman for Foulger-Pratt, the building’s owner.
It was not clear how many employees would be in the Silver Spring location.
“The new location will allow us to bring together a number of administrative teams currently housed at multiple other office locations,” a Children’s spokesperson said in a statement. “This will create operating efficiencies and facilitate beneficial interaction among the teams that will be located there.”
Children’s provides pediatric services to children in the D.C. area, and was recently ranked as one of the country’s top five children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report.
The medical system has a location on Roeder Road, near downtown Silver Spring.
The deal is the first announced by Potomac-based Foulger-Pratt in its quest to reposition the building for multiple tenants.
Discovery, the parent of a number of education and education channels including Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network and Oprah Winfrey Network, moved its headquarters in New York City.
Children’s will occupy mid-level floors of the building, leaving ground- and top-floor space available for lease. A spokeswoman for the property said there were no other tenants to announce Wednesday.
“We are thrilled to welcome Children’s National to Inventa Towers,” said Foulger-Pratt Managing Director Michael Abrams. “We couldn’t have asked for a better tenant to kick-off our leasing efforts.
In March, Foulger-Pratt unveiled a new name for the building, Inventa Towers, and plans for a $15 million interior and exterior renovation that will begin in late summer.
Foulger-Pratt and New York-based Cerberus Capital Management purchased the building for $70 million in 2018.
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
