The transaction was brokered by Jeffrey Cole, Rick Putnam and Ed Hernandez of Trammell Crow Co.'s Southern California Capital Markets Group, who represented both parties in the sale. The 1401 Dove St. building, in the Airport Area submarket of Newport Beach, is situated on 3.59 acres and was completely renovated in 2001. The office project was originally built in 1974.

The Trammell Crow brokers point out that the office vacancy rate in the Newport Beach submarket is the lowest in Orange County, 6.2%, and commands the highest average asking rents. Some asking rents in the submarket range as high as $5 per sf per month, full service gross.

The third quarter Orange County office market research report by Trammell Crow notes that the Airport Area submarket has accounted for more than half of the county's gross absorption of 6.6 million sf this year. The Airport Area submarket also posted a year-over-year increase in rents, with an average asking rate of $31.24 per sf, 13% higher than in the third quarter of 2005, according to the Trammell Crow report. The $31.24 asking rent in the Airport Area compared with an average of $28.83 throughout the county.

The third quarter report also showed roughly 4.5 million sf of new office construction in the pipeline, with 2.3 million sf of that in the Airport Area. The remaining development is going up in the South County, where the product is divided fairly evenly between the Irvine Spectrum and Aliso Viejo submarkets.