Northmarq's Jim Kornick and Matt Clinebell represented the buyer, JAGAssociates, LLC, in the transaction. This deal is the first of theyear and follows a small handful of medical office deals that closedin the Baltimore-Washington area in 2009, Kornick tells GlobeSt.com."It is not that MOBs aren't performing well--they are, in fact,outperforming regular offices in terms of occupancies and renewals."

One of the reasons why deals have been scarce is that owners--usually physicians that occupy the buildings--have been reluctant tobring their offices to market, Kornick says. "No one want to sellbecause they are getting a solid rental stream." This particularoffice traded at a 9% cap rate, although Kornick says that if the dealhad been negotiated this year instead of last November it would haveclosed at 8.5% rate. Demand for medical office is huge right now,Kornick says. "I am contacting all of the owners I know and tellingthem to come to the negotiating table because the money is out there."

St. Agnes Healthcare Center is a two-story medical office buildingbuilt in 1969 and rebuilt in 1998 as a build-to-suit outpatientmedical facility for St. Agnes Hospital.