Part of the historic former Walter Reed Army Medical Center is being offered for sale after prior plans to turn the historic building into a live-events venue were scrapped late last year.
Feldman Ruel began marketing the central heating plant building on behalf of the team converting the campus into a mixed-use development. Potential uses for the roughly 22,253-square-foot building at 6800 Cameron Drive NW include retail, restaurant, office, medical, child care, education and fitness, among other things. Built in 1918, the 2-acre site is listed for nearly $4 million.
The Parks at Walter Reed team hopes to find uses that will complement other offerings at the 66-acre campus, which include office, residential, retail and medical uses, per Vicki Davis, managing partner at Urban Atlantic. That firm has partnered with Hines and Triden Development Group on the project. The campus includes features a Whole Foods Market, Jinya Ramen Bar and a forthcoming neighborhood hardware store.
"This property offers the right buyer an opportunity to bring additional amenities to this growing neighborhood that includes more than 2,200 housing units, 147,000 square feet of retail and 7,000 square feet of office," Davis said in a statement.
Also in play is the former General Hospital building, being marketed for sale through Marcus & Millichap. That process is still in the works, and Davis said the team hasn't yet selected a prospective buyer.
Building 15, as the former heating plant is also know, is an imposing structure and still services part of the campus. The two-level building includes 48-foot ceilings in its great room, Flemish bond brickwork with brick lintels and limestone keystones and sills. It also features a pair of 145-foot-tall smoke stacks.
The property is being offered for sale with a long-term lease through November 2066 for part of the property to WGL Energy Systems, which is paying nearly $8,000 a month for its roughly 4,000-square-foot portion of the property.
The Parks team had previously offered to sell the building to a group that wanted to use the property for live concerts and events, with a capacity for up to 1,800 people. Those plans encountered resistance from some residents that felt that type of use would have had a negative impact on the community.
Davis, a member of the Washington Business Journal's Power 100 list of 2025, said The Parks team plans to be transparent in its efforts to find a new buyer, as it has been with other parts of the project, and will keep the community apprised through the entitlement process. The Feldman Ruel team has received a strong level of interest since it began marketing the property two weeks ago, but the brokerage hasn't set a date for offers yet.
"Our goal is to widely advertise it and figure out what the best use for it is," Davis said. "We hope to receive different packages from interested parties. It's still early in the process, so anyone who's interested can submit an offer to buy it."