Taiwan-based Pacific Resources Stevenson bought the 49 Stevenson St. building, in the heart of San Francisco's financial district from a US institutional seller for $24.2 million in an all-cash deal at a price that is approximately 40% below the current assessed value of the office property, according to Grubb & Ellis. In addition to Cressman, other members of the Grubb & Ellis team were vice president Michael Taquino and senior associate Kyle Kovac.

The 49 Stevenson building is a 15-story tower that was completed in 1989. The property is anchored by multiple tenants, including M+W Zander and Hitachi Consulting, as well as retail tenant Yank Sing Restaurant.

The sale of 49 Stevenson comes on the heels of another Downtown San Francisco office deal, the acquisition of the 371,825-square-foot 211 Main St. building in the South Financial District by the Los Angeles-based CIM Group. Cressman says that the Downtown market is attracting more than 20 purchasers for each major property that comes to the market. He attributes the broad investor interest in part to the "decreases in values that are predicted to continue through the first half of 2010."

Cressman's observations echo the latest Grubb & Ellis research report on the San Francisco office market, which states that, "Economic headwinds remain, but tenants, landlords, buyers and sellers have grown more comfortable with economic situation." The report says that fourth-quarter activity suggests that "the worst is over in San Francisco's office market," where the rate of decline eased in the fourth quarter.

According to the report, vacancy rose from 15.4% to 15.5%, an increase that is "nominal" in comparison to the increase of 2.8% that occurred during the first nine months of the year. In addition, net absorption turned positive for the first time since the third quarter of 2008.

The Grubb & Ellis report cites a mixture of good and bad news for the market. "The good news for landlords is that sublease space at 2.1 million square feet is no longer flooding the market," the report states. "The bad news is that numerous lease expirations will hit San Francisco in 2010 with Wells Fargo, Levi's, CSAA, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America potentially vacating large spaces," it concludes.