An affiliate of Southern California-based Vista Investment Group acquired an office building on one of north San Jose’s busiest corners earlier this month at a price more than double the last time the property traded six years ago.

Vista paid about $27.6 million for the building at 3100 N. First St., according to a source with knowledge of the transaction. The price for the 99,494-square-foot asset works out to nearly $277 per square foot.

The seller was an affiliate of Palo Alto-based Menlo Equities, which had acquired the building in 2008 for $14 million, or $145 per square foot, according to Real Capital Analytics. The building sits on about five acres at the corner of Montague Expressway and North First.

Menlo picked it up from Hitachi and embarked on a renovation program to upgrade the property’s interiors and exterior. The building caught a tenant in Broadcom Corp., which struck a deal to occupy the site back in 2010. The asset has good proximity to VTA light rail and scores of new apartment units coming online in north San Jose.

The submarket is seeing more activity lately as renovated buildings, largely clustered along nearby Orchard Parkway, start to fill up. In addition, developers have finally started to put up new buildings in north San Jose, a bullish sign that the leasing wave in Mountain View and Sunnyvale is starting to reach Silicon Valley’s largest city. As we’ve reported in recent weeks, north San Jose is also an expansion play for Apple Inc., which is leasing and buying properties on North First Street.

CBRE’s Joseph Moriarty represented both sides of the transaction. Al Valencia and Andrew Kirsh of Los Angeles-based law firm Sklar Kirsh provided legal representation for Vista Investment Group.

Privately held Vista, based in Santa Monica, was founded in 2007 and focuses on assets with strong upside potential through renovations, according to its website. It buys office and multifamily projects primarily in Southern California.