First Potomac sells industrial assets

First Potomac Realty Trust, a Bethesda-based real estate investment trust, said it is selling 24 industrial properties, comprising approximately 4.3 million square feet, for a total of $259 million.

Twenty-three buildings comprising approximately 4 million square feet — 16 in southern Virginia, seven in the Baltimore-Washington corridor — are being acquired by an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII for $241.5 million.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter.

The 24th property, a 236,000-square-foot industrial building in Haymarket, Va., was sold to Columbia-based Corporate Office Properties Trust for $17.5 million.

First Potomac said it intends to use the sales proceeds to repay debt and to acquire office buildings in the Washington region.