SAN JOSE-Aspect Communications has locked down 193,000 sf at Spieker Properties' Creekside Technology Center for another five years. The maker of customer service Web site building software isn't revealing the cost of the lease, but given the current market conditions, the general lack of larger spaces and the fact that the market has far outpaced inflation, the company is no doubt paying significantly more than they did to secure the space five years ago.

The going rate for comperable flex-office space in the area reportedly goes for between $4 per sf and $5 per sf per month. Cushman & Wakefield's James Koch, who brokered the deal, says the San Jose-based company negotiated a “market rent” and that there are “certainly deals happening above what we agreed to.”

Meanwhile, as if in response to current rates, the company is having an office building erected on property it owns across the street from the Spieker development. “They are expanding in that campus, but expanding into owned space,” says Koch.