The single biggest deal was the record $344 million Maguire Properties paid for the class A Wells Fargo Center at 1700 Lincoln St. Maguire, based in California, acquired the Wells Fargo Center as part of a $1.5-billion portfolio purchase of mostly California properties. A local spokeswoman for Maguire says she doesn't know how much Maguire paid for Wells Fargo, but doesn't think the price for individual buildings is being broken out.

Others, however, have estimated the purchase price closer to $311 million. Either way, it would represent the largest amount ever paid for a single building by a wide margin.

The second largest deal was the $142 million Invesco and Circle Capital paid for the Pratt portfolio in Longmont, in northern Colorado. The third largest transaction was the $56.4 million Real Estate Capital paid for the Janus world headquarters in the Clayton Lane development by Randy Nichols in Cherry Creek North.

Neiman's report tracks 32 office sales, 20 retail sales and 10 industrial deals. He notes that in the past few years, retail has accounted for the lion's share of the transactions. This year, however, not only did offices account for slightly more than half of all the deals, but they also accounted for $776.36 million of the total dollar volume. Retail, by contrast, accounted for only $62.49 million of the entire sales and industrial accounted for $43.73 million. R&D space, largely driven by the Pratt sale, accounted for $156.4 million.

In square footage, investors bought 5.06 million sf of offices, 6.09 million sf of retail, 1.06 million sf of industrial, 2.2 million sf of R&D space, for a total of 14.42 million sf.