RCA in the commercial property press:

San Francisco First-Quarter Investment Remains Slow

California Real Estate Journal reports: Investment in big-ticket commercial real estate remained stagnant in San Francisco during 2009's first quarter, with office properties making up the period's only significant transactions, according to reports from local brokerages and analysts.

Nearly $159 million traded hands on the city's office buildings priced higher than $5 million during the first quarter, more than doubling its performance from the previous quarter closing 2008, according to New York-based Real Capital Analytics. That amount remains well off the $765 million in office investment reported a year ago, however, and is nearly 50 times lower than the recent peak of $7.67 billion set in 2007's second quarter.

In San Francisco's central business district, $41 million from two transactions were reported during the first quarter, according to NAI BT Commercial. But those two deals averaged $206.75 per square foot - five deals in the nearby Peninsula region averaged $843.56 per foot by comparison - and the overall market's capitalization rate was 5 percent, 220 basis points lower than its 2008 average.

Tim Maas, senior vice president with Colliers International in San Francisco, said the only notable transactions in the first quarter were two small owner-user office deals, including the purchase of 717 Battery Street, also known as Musto Plaza. That building was bought by Michael and Xochiltzin Birch for $14 million - about $430 per square foot - even though it traded hands for around $10.3 million less than two years before, according to the brokerage.