Situated on 6.8 acres in Howard County's "Columbia Perimeter" submarket, the 19-year old office structure offers four floors of space and has 86% occupancy. While Tranzon Fox officials are not releasing the name of the seller, company president Steven I. Fox did tell GlobeSt.com his client is "an international life insurance/investment management and asset management company, and it has ordered the property sold by the end of the first quarter."

Fox's company handled the auction of a building for the same client last month. "In December, we sold a downtown office building on Main Street in Richmond for $4.2 million," he says. "[The structures] are similar only in that it's commercial office property. That property was urban, and was an older building built in the early 1900s; this is a suburban building built in 1983." When asked if he expects Overlook Center to command more than the $4.2 million garnered for the Richmond property, Fox responds in the affirmative. "It's worth more than that, and our expectation is that it will bring in more than that," he says. Fox adds that the high bid has to be confirmed by a committee within the client's firm, but that he does expect their confirmation.

Indeed, expectations for more than $4 million for Overlook Center are justified, as county records show the property changed hands from Twin Knolls South Limited Partnership to Des Moines, IA's Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company--which is, most likely, the current owner--for $4.8 million in 1990. And online information for real estate company Spaulding & Slye reveals that the firm was once "offering for sale a fee simple interest in Overlook Center" for $7 million, or $101.62 per sf.