Two of the largest deals to hit this office market are the$200-million sale of the 438,960-sf Pacific Center in MissionValley by Maguire Properties and the $200-million acquisition byWereldhave USA of the 23-story, 380,000-sf Advanced Equities Plazain Downtown San Diego. The Equities Plaza acquisition is the firstproperty investment that Wereldhave has engaged in on the WestCoast. The firm decided to enter the West Coast market because ofthe area's increasing economic activity. San Diego provided aviable option because the size of Equities Plaza will allowWereldhave to build up a local management organization.

Wereldhave isn't the only firm looking to establish or expandits presence in San Diego. According to the CBRE study, "San Diegoemployment growth will remain positive as moderate expansion isexpected in overall employment as well as office employment."

As regional employment expands, so has the need for customizedoffice space. Raceway Corporate Center, a 130,000-sf office andR&D condominium project in Carlsbad, is one center offeringtailored workspace to small business owners. The workspace, whichcould be as small as 1,135 sf or as large as 20,000-plus sf, isunique in the Carlsbad submarket, which does not provide manyopportunities for such a diverse range of space within one businesspark. Construction begins in fall 2007 and will include sixone-story buildings and one building with a second-floor mezzanine.Raceway Corporate Center will be located within the 1.5-million-sf,master-planned Carlsbad Raceway Business Park, an office andR&D park that is set to add more than 5,000 jobs to thecommunity.