The Columbia building, along with Greystone I and other well-leased buildings were bought by the TIC group, which was looking for less risk. Greystone II, Greystone III and other more vacant buildings went to the Triple Net's Value Fund 2003 along with a vacant four-acre development parcel. Greystone III is a 48,000-sf office building that was completed in 2001 and has never been leased.

Triple Net represented itself in the transaction. PS Business Parks and Nike were represented by Grubb & Ellis. Kevin Shannon out of G&E/Los Angeles along with Brad Fletcher, Dave Squire and David Hill out of G&E/Portland represented PS Business Parks. Fletcher, who also represents Nike, declined comment. Going forward, Grubb & Ellis has the leasing assignment and GVA Kidder Mathews has the property management assignment.

Last October, Nike inked a six-year lease for another building within Woodside that was part of the 52-acre former IBM campus that Atlanta-based Wells REIT acquired in October 2003. In addition to 355,000 sf of buildings, Wells acquisition included about 32 acres of excess land, about half of which was sold to Nike concurrent with the lease deal.

The Woodside transaction is the second major business park sale in Portland's so-called Silicon Valley in the past two months as investors put themselves in position to capitlize on the region's recovery by buying unstabilized portfolios at below replacement cost. In August, a joint venture of Portland based ScanlanKemperBard Cos. and the latest fund of the Praedium Group of New York City acquired 536,500 sf within the 1.2 million-sf Amberglen Business Center in Hillsboro, OR, for $54.82 million or $102 per sf. The deal represents about 40% of the park's square footage. The portfolio's overall occupancy was 66%.

"With the recovery under way, our intelligence tells us that Westside vacancy will be in the single digits by 2009," said SKB principal Todd Gooding at the time. "Moreover, we are buying the more traditional suburban office space, and there isn't a lot of that stuff out there; it's mostly single-story tilt-wall industrial buildings built out for office use."

Principal Real Estate Investors of Des Moines, acquired Amberglen in November for $114 million. Shortly thereafter, Keith Young and Monty Haynes of GVA Kidder Mathews in Portland were hired to sell off half of the park. The brokers have told GlobeSt.com the reason for the sale is that Principal did not want $114 million worth of exposure in one market.

SKB and Praedium have hired Grubb & Ellis as the leasing agent and Cushman & Wakefield as the property manager. G&E brokers Dave Squire, Brandon Frank and Eric Haskins have the marketing assignment. The overall Sunset Corridor office market had vacancy of 27.6% at the end of the second quarter, down from 31.9% in the same quarter of 2004, according Grubb & Ellis. By comparison, the Washington Square/Kruse Way area's vacancy shrank from 10.6% to 6.6% during the same period. G&E's third quarter numbers were not yet available.

"SKB is buying at the right time to take advantage of where the market is headed," said Haskins. "They are buying some good quality product, so as market demand makes its way back up Highway 217 (from the Washington Square/Kruse Way area) and out Highway 26, people will be looking in the Sunset Corridor, and there's no better park in the state than Amberglen."