Benaroya's director of marketing and leasing Ed Luera tells GlobeSt.com that Cancer Research and Biostatistics extended its commitment for the top two floors of the 363,189-sf building, and that Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, scheduled to vacate its 200,000 sf in the building this spring, may actually continue leasing some space there after all.

Fred Hutch, which is developing a new building in the South Lake Union area to house its public sciences division, had planned to completely vacate its space at Metro Park East when the new South Lake Union building is ready for occupancy in March. Now, says Luera, it appears Fred Hutch will need to retain some of that space, though he does not yet know how much. Fred Hutch leases 10 floors (2-11) in the building.

Meantime, the occupancy of floors 19 and 20 is covered for the next several years. CRAB, which was leasing the 19th floors directly from Benaroya and subleasing the 20th floor from Openwave, is now leasing both floors directly from Benaroya and has extended its lease, previously set to expire in 2005, out to 2010. The parties involved did not release the lease rate on the transaction, but brokers familiar with the deal say that rate is right around the asking rate for the lower floors in the building, which is $24 per sf per year, full service, which is less than the organization was previously paying.