Glenn N. DesRosiers, a VP with Friedman Real Estate Group, represented the owner, Osprey-Troy Officecentre LLC. He says like the Troy office market, the 75% occupied building has been going through very tough times, but that he credits the landlords with doing something about it. He says another, similar Osprey office property in this Detroit suburb were also struggling, but seeing at least some activity, whereas this complex was not. "The question was, why was this same owner in the same market not seeing the same activity?" he tells GlobeSt.com. "We were determined to reposition the buildings."

The landlord did a capital infusion into the five-building complex, putting in new common areas, carpet and wood paneling, doubling cafeteria space, landscaped the parking lot and put in new signage. "Also, with the floors that were 25,582 sf or greater, we're charging $15.45 per sf, gross, that's unprecedented in this market. Any floors with less sf, we're charging $16.45 per sf," DesRosiers says. As a further incentive, tenants are being offered one month free rent for each year they lease.

The moves paid off, he says. "We've seen a deluge of transactions in 2008, especially in the past six months," DesRosiers says. "And it's a tough market. Tenants pretty much these days can go wherever they want to, we had to be tenacious to get them. Right now it's a tenants market, but at the same time, landlords who have good buildings and have the capital reserves to do improvements and offer incentives, should do okay."

Other incentives helped on the Kelly deal. The staffing services company, based here, is spending $7.8 million to consolidate employees from other offices into this building, with help from a $4.7 million grant from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. The city is also providing $20,000 in services to the company to help with the move.