Just a week earlier, Cisco Systems said it would move itsfast-growing optical Internet-working business unit to a 26,000-sflease in the Hamm Building, which is near Lawson Commons.Althoughthe fifth floor on Lawson Commons had been designed for a singletenant, it will broken up into multitenant space to accommodateGuardent, says Rob Kost, the United Properties agent who brokeredthe deal. Guardent is leasing 9,000 sf of office space,less than athird of the size of a typical floor.

City officials expected that the City's hefty subsidies tofacilitate the relocation of Lawson Software from Minneapolis to anew office building in downtown St. Paul would attract otherhigh-tech companies to thearea. The 370,000-sf Lawson Commonsopened late last year.St. Paul's growing tech sector, which alsoincludes a variety of high tech start-ups and Internet companiesinits Lowertown district, was indeed an incentive for Guardent tomove there, says John Sekevitch, vice president and general managerof Guardent.The growing number of restaurants andentertainmentoptions, including a new Science Museum andaprofessional hockey team debuting this fall indowntown St. Paul,is another reason Guardent chose Lawson.

But one big reason downtown St. Paul is becoming anattractivelocation to high-tech tenants is itsrelatively low rents - at justunder $14 psf, class A space in downtown St. Paul is about $1 psfbelow the metropolitan average and $2 psf below downtownMinneapolis, according to arecent report from Bloomington, MN-basedUnitedProperties.What's more, space in Lawson Commons and theHammBuildings are definitely bargains these days. The St.Paul Cos.is subleasing a large amount of space inboth buildings, and to fillit up quickly, the spaceis being offered at attractive rates. Onebrokergroused that rental rates on the space were recentlycut morethan 10%. Kost agree that he wasoffering a "fairly aggressivepackage."