TAMPA - A foreclosed office building - the largest block of commercial space in Pinellas County - sold this week at a fraction of its heyday purchase price.

The Blake Whitney Thompson Co. LLC in St. Petersburg purchased the former Special Data Processing building for $3.8 million. The 192,000 square-foot building, at 16120 U.S. 19 in Largo, sold in 2005 for a whopping $24.6 million.

"There's nothing like this in Pinellas County," said Blake Whitney Thompson, managing director of the company. "To build this again, it would cost about $25 million."

The sale leaves the real estate community buzzing about what kind of business may fill the space and whether a new tenant will bring much-needed jobs to the area. Thompson says he's already talking with a healthcare provider and others.

The reason he may be so optimistic about leasing the property is because he plans to undercut his competition. Since he bought the building for such a low price, he can charge significantly lower rates than similarly-sized properties.

The deal could also represent the beginning of a wave of distressed commercial assets hitting the market, said Paul Carr, a broker with CB Richard Ellis, which represented the seller in this deal.

Industry on-lookers have predicted commercial buildings would be the next shoe to drop in the troubled real estate market. Lenders, though, have been holding off selling assets, trying to work something out with borrowers. But as more lenders realize they don't have many options, they may decide to dump properties and move on, Carr says.

"This is the first of the severely distressed deals to enter the market," Carr said. "I don't think we'll see a flood of these types of deals, but we'll see more of them."

Ben Thypin, senior market analyst for New York-based Real Capital Analytics, agrees.

"Lenders have a lot of assets in trouble, and they're trying to prioritize and figure out what is worth holding onto and what needs to be dumped now," Thypin said.

"It will take years to work off all the distressed inventory."

That doesn't necessarily mean the other shoe is dropping, Thypin said.

"Lenders are actually a lot more optimistic than they were last year."

But the $3.8 million sales price of the Largo building, he said, shows how much of a loss some lenders are willing to take to get rid of some properties.

The Largo building was the home of Special Data Processing, a magazine distribution center. Midland Loan Services, who took it back in foreclosure, was owed $18 million.

Special Data Processing sold the building in 2005 to a group of 27 investors, Carr said. Special Data Processing was the sole tenant, but when the company was sold and moved out, the building's value plummeted.

"An empty building is much more difficult to sell," Thypin said. "Having a solid tenant changes everything."

Getting another tenant in the same may not be easy, said Barry Oaks, of the commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. But the right tenant could make the deal a huge success.

"This is a good opportunity for a back-office operation looking for good visibility on U.S. 19," Oaks said. As for the price, "there could be a healthy debate on whether they're stealing it or if it should have been even lower."

Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804 or sbehnken@tampatrib.com. Follow her on Twitter @TBORealtyCheck.