Silver Spring falls from top office market perch

But the figures do not suggest any long-term problem for Silver Spring, which should continue to benefit from its downtown renaissance, said Kevin Thorpe, vice president and director of research for Cassidy & Pinkard’s Washington, D.C., office.

‘‘Silver Spring is a market that has reinvented itself in recent years and will continue to attract cost-conscious tenants and will benefit from D.C. economic regional growth overall,” he said.

Thorpe said Silver Spring remains ‘‘one of the leanest markets” in the Greater Washington region, noting that asking rents rose to $28.32 in the fourth quarter, up 11 percent from 2006.

‘‘This is indicative of very healthy rent appreciation,” he said.

In fact, the slackness in the market was due almost entirely to about 106,000 square feet of new office space coming online in the North Silver Spring end of the market. Going forward, only 51,750 square feet of new space is set to deliver in 2008-09 in Silver Spring. As for the vacancy rate of 6.8 percent, that is well below the 9.7 percent recorded for the Washington region overall and below Silver Spring’s 10-year average of 8.2 percent, Thorpe said.

The market also remains attractive to investors, as noted by the $21 million — $228 per square foot — that Colony Capital of New York paid to acquire 801 Roeder Road in downtown Silver Spring in the fourth quarter of 2007. Atlantic Realty Corp. of Vienna, Va., made a small killing on the 10-story building, which it bought for $4.78 million in 1999. At the time, the property was listed as a Class B structure and had only one tenant occupying about 13 percent of the space.

For the record, the Bethesda-Chevy Chase submarket posted suburban Maryland’s lowest vacancy rate at 6.4 percent.

Frederick buildingsells for $51 million

A four-story 233,000-square-foot office in Frederick recently sold for $51 million, according to Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors, which acquired the property for a private investor.

The deal was the first for the company’s new Wealth Management program, which provides advisory services to high net worth private individuals and corporations seeking a passive, sole-ownership real estate investment vehicle.

‘‘This unique new investment platform has already secured commitments for approximately $182 million in equity that is currently being deployed into new commercial real estate acquisitions on behalf of Wealth Management participants,” said Jeff Hanson, president of Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors, in a statement.

The property, 5202 Presidents Court, was built in 1998 on almost 24 acres, and is 96 percent leased. Tenants include JP Morgan Chase, Bechtel Power Corp. and Science Applications International Corp.

WRIT buys warehousefor $11.2M in Landover

Washington Real Estate Investment Trust has bought a 150,000-square-foot industrial warehouse in Landover for $11.2 million.

The property, at 6100 Columbia Park Road, is 78 percent leased, according to the Rockville company. It is inside the Capital Beltway adjacent to Route 50, between Interstate 95 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

WRIT expects to achieve a first-year yield of 6.8 percent on the investment. Merchants Metals Inc. leases 70,750 square feet of the building.

The property formerly was occupied by Safeway’s regional bakery operation. First Industrial Realty Trust of Chicago bought the building for $6.4 million in 2006, according to GV Advantis.

CresaPartners arranges BAE Systems leases

Real estate services company CresaPartners of Bethesda has completed arrangements for two new leases for BAE Systems of Rockville in Arlington, Va., and will also provide project management services.

CresaPartners secured 35,500 square feet of office space for BAE Systems Land and Armaments division and 22,500 square feet for its Ground Systems division, which will relocate personnel there from York, Pa.

CresaPartners also helped BAE Systems renew a lease for 32,221 square feet at Dahlgren (Va.) Technology Center, where the landlord is Corporate Office Properties Trust of Columbia.

Commercial real estate news items may be mailed to: Steve Monroe, The Business Gazette, 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877; e-mailed to smonroe@gazette.net; or faxed to 301-670-7183.