Then there were the ups. In a series of deals, the building has landed five new tenants totaling about 95,000 sf. These new tenants, which signed long-term leases of 10 years or more, are PR Newswire, a news and information distribution service, at 29,000 sf; Hickman & Lowder, a law firm, at 10,000 sf; HWH Architects, an architecture, planning and engineering firm, at 24,000 sf; Tarolli, Sundheim, Covell & Tummino LLP, a patent law firm, at 12,000 sf; and Bonezzi Switzer Murphy Polito & Hupp Co. LPA, a law firm, at 20,000 sf.

Charlie Valentino, asset manager for building owner KBS Realty Advisors, tells GlobeSt.com that many of the new tenants were able to take advantage of current market conditions to upgrade their spaces at little additional cost. The Downtown office vacancy rate is 19.72%, and the class A vacancy rate is 14.1%, according to a CB Richard Ellis third quarter report. At the end of third quarter, the average asking rate for class A space was down to $20.13 per sf.

Valentino says that some of the absorption in the Downtown Cleveland office market is being driven by the need for more space by growing tenants, such as PR Newswire. In addition, the law firm that left 70,000 sf in the Penton Media Building now occupies 100,000 sf in another Downtown building. "Cleveland has been slower than some areas of the country to recover, but we are starting to see some growth," Valentino says, adding that much of the expansion is occurring in the legal and service sectors.