The location puts the new owner not in the heart of theprofessional services district but rather in the midst of a retaildistrict. "The real estate market is different here than (inPortland or Seattle)," World Wide Packets CEO Bernard Daines toldGlobeSt.com. "There's not a lot of space, and a build-to-suit meansa 10-year lease. I'll be out of business or out of the buildingbefore then, so you have to do things different here."

Matt Hawkins of Kiemle Hagood, which represented World WidePackets, says the 10,000- to 40,000-sf spaces in town have beensnapped up by the high-tech sector in the past six months. Newspace is being built to add some slack, but finding space on shortnotice is tough unless you get creative.

So getting a 30,000-sf building with 30-foot-high ceilings forless than half of its tax-roll value plus the cost of a land leasewas a prudent idea, says Hawkins. "It just made a whole lot ofsense to hold it themselves," he comments. "If the retail marketwere to strengthen, they could turn right around and sell it off asa retail property and recoup plus some."