After the freefall of 4Q08, Tampa Bay’s user and investment office market started to gain traction in mid-2009. Tenants and investors now have a better picture of how revenues and expenses will look as a continued contraction of the office space market persists.

ST. PETERSBURG - Baypoint Commerce Center, BOMA’s 2009 Regional Office Park of the Year, closed out 2009 with a strong leasing performance. Taylor & Mathis negotiated 36,573sf of leasing in fourth quarter 2009 outperforming the Gateway submarket, which reported negative absorption for the quarter.

Managed by Penn-Florida Companies, the 15-building, 699,411sf office complex in the Gateway submarket of Pinellas County has won six TOBY awards in the past three years.

LAKELAND- Hauger-Bunch Inc. leased 2,500sf of Class A office space in Parkway Professional Centre in Lakeland. The property, at 4279 US 98 S. in Lakeland, is a newly constructed 20,000sf office building. The property was leased to Central Florida Mediation Group LLC for a period of three years.

The owner of the property, Triveritas LLC, affiliated with the acclaimed custom home builder Hulbert Homes, was represented by Lisa Parks of Hauger-Bunch. Hauger-Bunch was the only broker involved in the transaction.

Construction is planned for a second 20,000sf.

TAMPA - Grubb & Ellis|Commercial Florida negotiated an expansion lease agreement for 2,246sf of professional office space in the Cypress Point Office Center at 10008 N. Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa.

Richard Andretta, SIOR, vice president in the firm’s Office Group, and associate Rob Turner negotiated the transaction representing the landlord, Tomorrow VII Cypress LP of Santa Fe, N.M.

The tenant, Health Integrated Inc., is a local firm that already leased 24,651sf at Cypress Point and now occupies a total of 26,897sf at the office center.