The Travelers, a fixture for 11 years at the 16-story, 229,322-sf Gateway Center at Legion Place and North Orange Avenue, has struck a deal with Atlanta-based Barry Real Estate Cos. to occupy 130,000 sf in a planned four-story, 160,000-sf building at Baldwin Park, brokers in a position to know tell GlobeSt.com.

Jimmy Barry, a Barry Real Estate Cos. representative who participated in the transaction, tells GlobeSt.com, "I apologize for the lack of help" but "I am not at liberty to speak about this transaction." David Pace, managing director of Baldwin Park Development Co., also tells GlobeSt.com, "I'm under a contractual confidentiality agreement with Barry Development" and can't comment on the Travelers-Barry deal. A Travelers representative in St. Paul, MN, however, tells GlobeSt.com the deal took five months to complete.

Brokers following the success of Baldwin Park and noting its growing list of class A office tenants, tell GlobeSt.com the Travelers Co. is expected to move most of its 775 employees to their new quarters starting in June 2005. That's when Travelers' existing 135,000-sf lease at Gateway Center expires.

Besides a need for more parking spaces, rent also figured in Travelers' decision to leave Downtown, brokers following the deal tell GlobeSt.com. For example, the average asking base rent at Gateway Center is $25 per sf. At Baldwin Park, the average quoted base rent is $18 per sf, up from $16 per sf a year ago, area brokers who are scouting for new space for their clients, tell GlobeSt.com.

The Travelers representative tells GlobeSt.com the leasing deal with Barry Real Estate Cos. is for 10 years but declines to disclose the rent rate. However, brokers knowledgeable in the Baldwin Park submarket tell GlobeSt.com the lease carries an estimated aggregate rent of $40 million. That would make it the largest office leasing deal of its kind here in the last five years, brokers monitoring area office rents tell GlobeSt.com.

The Florida Office Property Co., a private REIT whose largest equity owner is Chicago-based LaSalle Investment Management, has owned Gateway Center since 1999 when it paid New York-based Tishman Speyer Inc. $31 million, or $135.18 per sf, for the 95%-leased property.

Barry Real Estate Co.'s 160,000-sf building for the Travelers will be the largest office structure completed at Baldwin Park to date. Lincoln Property Co. of Dallas and locally based Battaglia Group are also developing a total 210,000 sf of class A product at Baldwin which is the suburban Winter Park, FL site of the former Orlando Naval Training Center.

St. Paul Cos. and Travelers Property Casualty Corp. merged on April l of this year in a deal the insurance industry valued at $17.9 billion. At that time, St. Paul officials said about 10%, or 3,000 workers out of the company's total 30,000 employees, would be terminated as part of a consolidation move. The company has not said what city offices would be affected by the layoffs.

On the New York Stock Exchange, meanwhile, St. Paul's common has fallen 15% since the merger. The stock is trading in the $35-per-share range.