A new medical and office complex that will break ground in early June on eight acres will help feed growing demand for office space in Simi Valley.

The Woodranch Professional Center is at Madera Road and Cancun Street, near the Sinaloa Golf Course. The complex is slated for completion in February.

It will have 26 freestanding buildings for sale, ranging in price from $823,680 for a 1,716-square-foot single-story building to $3.7 million for an 8,121-square-foot two-story building.

There will be four two-story buildings, and 22 one-story buildings, ranging in size from 1,659 square feet to 4,779 square feet. Altogether, there will be 85,103 square feet of office and medical space.

Mike Foxworthy of Daum Commercial Real Estate Services in Camarillo represented the buyer, Steadfast Woodranch LLC, and the seller, Woodranch Office Park LLC. The property sold for $9.2 million.

Prices for the buildings were released last week. There's already a waiting list of more than 45 people who are interested, and one building has been sold, Foxworthy said.

Vacancy rates for office space in Simi Valley is at a low 5 percent, he said. And there's a strong need for this type of product.

"There's a lot of residents in Simi Valley who are working in Westlake because they don't have the quality office product to choose from in the Simi market," Foxworthy said.

There is a strong demand for office space in Simi Valley, agreed Tom Dwyer, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis in Camarillo.

"It's an untapped market," Dwyer said. "Simi Valley has been historically a bedroom community, supported by retail and industrial, and never really blossomed as an office space market."

Dwyer said Steadfast will see competition for the medical and office space market in Conejo Valley because several other buildings are in the planning phase or under construction.

"If you look at what's going on in the Conejo Valley, right now there are 960,000 square feet of office space being built, 45 percent of which has been pre-leased," Dwyer said. "And still, the Conejo Valley can build another 900,000 square feet of space on available land."

Even after all the construction is finished, Dwyer predicts, demand will remain high, and rents will continue to increase because of rising construction costs and land costs.

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