A few months later, Hansen bought in a team of brokers from CB Richard Ellis to re-sign tenants whose leases were expiring and backfill 72,000 sf of available space. Over the next six months, CBRE's Clint Benson, Eric Grindy and Tom Fellman worked with better than 14 businesses and several brokers--including Doug Bean, Mike Holzgang and Dave Squire--to renew and re-lease a total of 78,000 sf in the building.

Today, occupancy stands at 88% and leases currently in negotiation with six professional service firms would fill 35,000 sf of the 45,000 sf still available, Benson tells GlobeSt.com. With a $2.3-million lobby renovation also now in the works that will dramatically improve the look and feel of the property, Hansen is confident of hitting EOP's year-end goal of 95% occupancy.

As for the time it has taken, Hansen says CBRE might have filled the building faster, but it would have been detrimental to the building's overall atmosphere. "You have to think about tenant mix in the building; because of its proximity to the courthouses, we have an awful lot of well-heeled law firms that wouldn't be particularly comfortable having a bunch of financially questionable dot-com tenants running around," says Hanson. "It's good to lease quickly, but its better to lease well--for tenants and investors."