WASHINGTON, DC-Reports are proliferating that Skanska’s spec office building at 733 10th St., NW has traded at a very respectable $818 per square foot, or $140 million. It is not bad, not bad at all, for Skanska, which was among the first to take the plunge in spec development here after the crash.

Indeed, after the project launched it quickly became clear that Skanska’s timing had been impeccable. Months before the building delivered, the firm secured three major tenants, bringing occupancy to 91%. If the eight-story, 165,000-square foot East End office has indeed closed at $818 per foot, that would place it in the same range as a trophy office sale.

However, the window for such a project, it appears, has temporarily closed and few expect to see much more spec development enter the pipeline beyond those projects already in the planning stage. For starters, explains Jones Lang LaSalle’s Scott Homa, the election cycle is having a cooling effect on investment sales activity in Washington, DC.