GovCIO wins $865M CENTCOM communications contract
February 20, 20248 habits that push your customers away
February 25, 2024Nearly two years after hiring a firm to explore a sale of the MLB’s Washington Nationals, Mark Lerner told The Washington Post Monday his family has decided not to sell the team.
Over that span, two other professional sports franchises in the DMV have sold, the NFL’s Washington Commanders and the Baltimore Orioles, while the owner of the region’s pro basketball and hockey teams launched plans to move from D.C. to Virginia.
But the Lerners have kept away from the fray.
Those two years have also seen a dramatic disruption to commercial real estate, the industry in which the Lerners made their billions. But while the family broke its silence on the Nationals, the status of its massive portfolio of D.C.-area real estate remains opaque.
The Lerner family owns millions of square feet of older office buildings, which have come under intense pressure since the onset of the pandemic, requiring big investments to stay competitive.
Lerner Enterprises hasn’t announced any acquisitions, sales, renovations or new office leases since 2022. The 72-year-old firm also hasn’t provided updates on the millions of square feet of planned development it has in its pipeline, including the fate of two demolished shopping malls where communities have been waiting years to see activity.