WASHINGTON, DC-Reports are proliferating that Skanska’s spec office building at 733 10th St., NW has traded at a very respectable $818 per square foot, or $140 million. It is not bad, not bad at all, for Skanska, which was among the first to take the plunge in spec development here after the crash.

Indeed, after the project launched it quickly became clear that Skanska’s timing had been impeccable. Months before the building delivered, the firm secured three major tenants, bringing occupancy to 91%. If the eight-story, 165,000-square foot East End office has indeed closed at $818 per foot, that would place it in the same range as a trophy office sale.

However, the window for such a project, it appears, has temporarily closed and few expect to see much more spec development enter the pipeline beyond those projects already in the planning stage. For starters, explains Jones Lang LaSalle’s Scott Homa, the election cycle is having a cooling effect on investment sales activity in Washington, DC.

“In the first quarter of 2011, there were 18 office trades spanning $1.7 billion in Downtown DC,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “In the first quarter of 2012, there were eight office sales totaling $1.1 billion.” Although pricing remains aggressive—and Homa notes that cap rates for Downtown properties were hovering around 5.6% for Q1—investors have become more risk averse in evaluating purchases and underwriting rent growth. Right now, he says, investors are favoring deals that involve stable in-place cash flows and minimal lease rollovers, a description that does not match the investment profile of a spec project.

That said, the window for spec development, though, may well reopen relatively soon. “The sale of 733 10th will not by itself be the catalyst for new development, but the healthy pipeline of tenants with leases expiring in the 2015-2017 timeframe may be,” Bill Prutting, senior vice president of CBRE Capital Markets tells GlobeSt.com, “provided these asset-repositioning or development opportunities clearly demonstrate a point of difference, such as a CityCenterDC location or some other unique feature or benefit.”

Even without the promise of more spec development, 733 10th St. is very good news for the market, Prutting adds. It “was a highly sought-after acquisition and pricing reflected strong investor interest.”