(This story, in slightly different form, originally appeared in Incisive Media's Daily Business Review.)

BOCA RATON, FL-In a sign of the economic times, a Boca Raton office building has been sold for $20 million, or $213 per square foot, after the buyer assumed the mortgage. The 94,000-square-foot Compson Financial Center changed hands when buyer 980 North Federal Acquisition Group took over an $18.7-million note from Bank of America at 5.28% interest, a low rate compared to what's currently offered.

Seller 980 North Federal LLC, whose principal is Stuart Gilbert of New York, paid $26.5 million for the property in 2006. In addition to access to financing, the buyer got an added benefit: The loan is interest-only for its first three years. Amortization didn't begin until the fourth year of the loan, shortly before the new owners acquired the four-story building at 980 N. Federal Highway.

"So we have six and a half years left on the loan at that interest rate," says Alan Gross, president of Gross Mortgage Finance in Davie. Gross and partner Mark Osheroff of the Osheroff Group in North Miami are managing members of 980 North Federal.