Something new is happening in the Hillsborough County office market: Rents are busting the 30-buck-per-square-foot barrier. Not surprisingly, it's happening in Tampa's Westshore, the largest and most expensive concentration of corporate offices in the region.

While Class A offices average slightly more than $25 per square foot in Westshore, the newest buildings are jacking rents past $30, in response to strong demand and high building costs.

Anne-Marie Ayers of CB Richard Ellis, which flagged the upsurge in rents in its quarterly report of the Tampa area office market, cited the Westshore phenomenon as a "new benchmark" for the market.

Depends on what market you're talking about. In the Tampa Bay region as a whole, St. Petersburg's Bank of America Tower charges more than $30 per square foot.

Rents are less heady in down-town Tampa and inland Pinellas County, where they average $20 per square foot.