The former headquarters of TranS1 Inc., a firm that specializes in minimally invasive spinal fusion products and techniques, is now on the market for sale or for lease, according to a broker that is currently marketing the site.

Steve Hall, a broker with Wilmington-based Maus Warwick Matthews & Company, said Tuesday that he recently received the listing for the 1.82-acre, 31,352-square-foot office building at 301 Government Center Drive.

TranS1 officials announced in June that the company had acquired Baxano Inc. – a Raleigh-based privately held medical device company – and was moving its headquarters to Raleigh.

The company’s release, at the time, stated that under the terms of the merger agreement, RacerX Acquisition Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of TranS1, merged with and into Baxano, with Baxano remaining as the surviving corporation and as a wholly owned subsidiary of TranS1.

Officials, at the time, would not comment about how the acquisition would affect its Wilmington operation, or if the summer transaction would affect its local workforce.

Baxano officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

The two-story Government Drive building that formerly housed TranS1 Inc. now has Baxano Inc. on its office marquee.

Hall said Baxano currently has 75 percent, or roughly 23,000 square feet, of office space leased in the building until December 2014. The remaining space belongs to Wilmington-based Alpha Mortgage, which occupies roughly 8,000 square feet of space in a sublease agreement with Baxano Inc. 

Officials hope to lease the nearly 23,000 square feet of office space at $16 per square foot on a triple net lease basis once Baxano’s lease is dissolved in December 2014. Hall added the entire building is also for sale at $4.78 million.

Located in the heart of multiple burgeoning office and retail districts, the office complex is across the street from the New Hanover County Government Center, located at 230 Government Center Drive; and next door to the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority at 235 Government Center Drive. 

The office complex is also within walking distance of numerous shops and restaurants at Racine Commons, as well as the University of North Carolina Wilmington campus. 

Hall said the space would be well suited for a call center, or planning and development firms that need quick access to government offices.

“There is a lot of open space for cubicles,” he said. “The building is set to be condoed-out into smaller sections if need be.”

Hall said given the momentum of the office market, the site may not stay on the market for long – adding that a number of users have already contacted him about purchasing the site. He said that changing accounting practices could also make owning office space more attractive.

During the Realtors Commercial Alliance of Southeastern North Carolina’s annual Commercial Day event in August, speakers discussed the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) proposed draft that, if enacted, will frame leases as liabilities.

Hall said if such a move is integrated into business accounting practices, the momentum from leasing office space to buying office space would have a profound effect on the region’s commercial market. 

“That’s going to shift the paradigm in the next few years,” he said. “That’s really going to have an effect on our market, and could help fill this building.”