"It's a good building that works well for them," Richards BarryJoyce & Partners principal Steven Purpura tells GlobeSt.com inassessing SWH's decision to remain. Not only is it situated in theheart of the city's most prominent office submarket, 58 Charles St.offers such attractive features as brick-and-beam space, a flexiblelayout and a private parking lot, says Purpura. The two-storybuilding is owned by BioMed Realty Trust, which acquired the assetin early 2006 for $13.1 million.

Gian Starita of Lincoln Property Co. represented the tenant inthe lease, while Purpura and RBJ assistant VP Eric Smith negotiatedfor BioMed Realty. Starita says SWH wanted to remain in the citywhere it was founded and was able to convince BioMed that afull-building deal versus converting the space to laboratory usemade economic sense over the long run. "It was a neat deal that meteveryone's needs," says Starita, who earlier this year joinedLincoln colleague Kevin Brown in finding 6,000 sf for SWH inRaynham for a suburban office.

The 58 Charles St. transaction carries the momentum of a strongthird quarter into the final frame of 2007, although Purpura saysthe pace appears to have eased recently from the frenetic summerstretch that dropped the East Cambridge office vacancy rate to 8.6%by the end of Q3. That is the lowest vacancy rate since Q2 2000when the mark was a miniscule 0.2%, notes RBJ director of researchBrendan Carroll. Interestingly, Carroll reports that the amount ofoccupied office space in East Cambridge is actually greater nowthan it was in 2000, reaching a rate of 7.3 million sf presentlyversus 7.1 million sf in the previous boom.