by Calculated Risk on 6/25/2009 08:05:00 PM

This is an interesting transaction for several reasons:

The seller was J.P. Morgan. Need cash?

The cap rate is rumored to be in the 8.5% to 9% range.

It was an all cash deal (no financing) by a CRE REIT that stayed on the sidelines during the insanity.

The purchase price is said to be below replacement cost.

From the Denver Post: 17th Street Plaza sale is biggest in Denver this year

A Massachusetts-based real-estate investment trust has paid $135 million in cash for 17th Street Plaza in the largest real-estate deal done in Denver this year.

HRPT Properties Trust bought the 32-story building at 1225 17th St. from J.P. Morgan, which was represented by brokers Mary Sullivan and Tim Swan of CB Richard Ellis.

Sullivan declined to reveal the sale price, but people in the real-estate community pegged the deal at $135 million.
...
"It's substantially below the replacement cost to build that building," [Todd Roebken, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle] said.

A few months ago, CoStar noted that Class A office space average actual cap rates had risen from 6.1% in Q4 2007 to 7.9% in Q4 2008. And this sale suggests cap rates have risen further ... as CRE prices fall.