Demetri Koutrouvelis, Laurent Myers, Adam Singer and Ryan Nunes of Studley represented Bailey Law Group in the lease transaction. Richard Tonner and Kimball Wood of Cassidy and Pinkard represented the building's landlord Broadway Partners.

The Bailey Law Group had about nine years left on its lease when another law firm tenant on the floor decided to move out, Myers tells GlobeSt.com. The firm decided to take the additional space for "defensive" purposes, based on its projections for future growth. Rental rates had jumped significantly since the firm signed its first lease in the building a few years ago. However a tenant improvement allowance and rent abatement measures helped to offset the higher rental rate, Myers says. Asking rate for the space was in the mid to upper $50s per sf, net of electric.

DC's CBD has traditionally had very low vacancy rates, hovering in the low 5% range. For the first seven months of 2008, however, the vacancy rate has fluctuated from 6.5% at the beginning of the year, to the current 6.1%, according to GVA Advantis' Q2 2008 statistics for the submarket. One of the reasons for the slight improvement the slight decrease in second quarter vacancy can be attributed to a pickup in leasing activity among tenants under 20,000 sf, GVA Advantis says in its report.