At least two dozen calls have been fielded as a result of Transwestern's announcement that it has secured the listing for Charles Schwab Corp. The firm is seeking a taker for vast blocks of under-construction space at Cousins Stone's Research Park Plaza. Transwestern's Tom Kasten holds the listing. Schwab also leases 115,000 sf of existing office space at Research Park Plaza.

Justin Garrett, Transwestern's research director, tells GlobeSt.com that the number of calls had surprised everyone. He says the price for the office space in the two-building project is not fixed, but will be hawked in the $20 per sf range.

According to one market watcher, the sublease space is about 2.2 million sf. That calculation does not include the Schwab space. Meanwhile, Dell is still pondering if it is going to put some of its space on the sublease market. And, the latest street talk has Sun Microsystems considering whether to put up 108,000 sf on the "Blue Light" special list that has been steadily growing since the year's start.

The Transwestern inquiries definitely are a bright spot in a market where brokers say there are deals in the pipeline, but few are reporting that they have just closed anything of significance. A few weeks back there had been some breathing space and enough so that some had hoped the tide had turned in a city that Forbes magazine ranks as the nation's second most desirable business location.

"The market has really slowed down significantly," Garrett says. Yet, he quickly points out that he too has heard there are many deals waiting to be signed.

It's just a question of when final pacts will be inked. The consensus from area brokers is that many would-be tenants are waiting for the nation's economy to pick up before signing on the dotted line. Others say would-be tenants are waiting for rents to drop, which is already occurring.

As class-A rates start to fall, the impact is being felt in the class-B properties. One property manager has confided to another that the showings for the solid class-B office building have dropped to one a week instead of several as a result of the spike in class-A sublease space.