The lease--with an estimated net effective rate of about $19 per sf, including several months of free rent and tenant improvement allowance of more than $30 per sf--is an expansion from the 22,000 sf it vacated in the Gerding Edlen-owned 4550 Macadam Building, a class B office building south of Downtown. First American's space was backfilled by the building's other tenant, FiServ Inc., which now leases the entire 50,000-sf building.

Local sources familiar with the transactions tell GlobeSt.com that FiServ was chomping at the bit to expand and bought out the waning months of First American Credco's lease in order to seal the deal early. Sources also say First American Credco, despite having multiple suitors, was bound to end up in an Opus' project because of the volume of business Opus pushes their way.

With this latest lease, Cornell West, delivered in Jan. 2001, is now 65% leased. That is not an uncommon occupancy number these days in the tech-heavy Sunset Corridor. The largest suburban office submarket, the 3.8-million-sf Sunset Corridor ended September with a 30.2% vacancy rate, the highest of the suburban markets.