‘Iconic’ Watergate office building in Washington to be sold

Washington: The Watergate office building, home to the infamous break-in that led to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation, is reportedly under contract to be sold to a private firm.

According to the sources familiar with the deal, the building would be sold to District-based private equity real estate investor Penzance Cos., the Washington Post reports. This would be the second sale of the of the building in six years, following a 2005 deal, where a group led by BentleyForbes, a private Los Angeles-based investor, bought the property for 84.5 million dollars from TrizecHahn Corp. Penzance spokeswoman, however, declined to comment, citing a company policy against discussing deals yet to be closed. The 11-story, 198,000-square-foot office building was still new in 1972 when thieves broke into the sixth-floor offices of the Democratic National Committee, alerting a security guard and beginning a chain of events that drove Nixon from the presidency and gave the building’s name to the historic scandal. Nixon, who was the 37th president of the United States, was the first and only president to resign from office. ANI