By comparison, Atlanta-based Wells Real Estate Investment paid $183 per sf at the end of 2001 for Windy Point I & II in a deal worth nearly $90 million, the largest suburban transaction of the year. One factor is occupancy. While the two-building Windy Point complex along the Northwest Tollway is 95% occupied, occupancy at the class-A Three Woodfield Lake a mile west of Woodfield shopping center is 82%, not out of line with recent suburban vacancy trends.

Trammell Crow Co. senior vice president Kenneth J. Szady represented the sellers, a joint venture between USAA Real Estate Company and TMW Property Services, in the deal with Itasca, IL-based Hamilton Partners. "Despite a rise in available space and over 4 million sf of negative absorption in the suburbs, investors are still seeking well-located, high physical caliber buildings at below replacement cost levels" Szady said in a statement. "Private investors continue to re-allocate monies into tangible assets from equities and properties valued under $15 million should continue to benefit from this trend."

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