A prominent but largely vacant Birmingham office building traded hands in a sale earlier this month.

An affiliate of the Chinese government-owned automaker and supplier SAIC Motor Corp. sold the 41,000-square-foot building at 322 N. Old Woodward Ave. to an entity tied to Birmingham developer Doraid Markus for $18 million, according to city staff in the Treasury Department.

The July 15 sale was between SAIC Property Management LLC and Woodward Oakland Partners LLC, registered to Markus, staff said.

At approximately $439 per square foot, it’s one of the highest per-square-foot sales in downtown Birmingham in the last 15 years, according to data from CoStar Group Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based real estate information service.

SAIC is among the largest automakers in China and maintains a key joint venture with General Motors Co. to sell vehicles in Asia. GM sales have declined steeply in China in recent years as homegrown automakers gobble up more of the market share once owned by the Detroit 3.

Brad Hitch of Troy-based Deco Real Estate LLC, the sole broker on the sale, said there were eight offers on the building, which had been on the market for about three months. He said he has been retained by Markus and his investors to lease the property to new office tenants.

Markus has not responded to an email and text message from Crain’s.

In 2012, SAIC opened its location in Birmingham dedicated to purchasing, logistics, technology and engineering, as well as managing import and export operations for suppliers. The move indicated the company’s ambition to deepen operations in North America, where new U.S. tariffs are reshaping supply chain dynamics. SAIC and its approximately 12 to 17 local employees have moved into a 4,000-square-foot space in the 187,000-square-foot building at 901 Wilshire Drive in Troy, which sold earlier this year in a $24 million deal, according to CoStar.

Hitch said prospective buyers have been approaching SAIC for the last five or so years about buying the Birmingham building. Finally, Hitch said, the company relented.

“They never really utilized the entire building because they work with GM a lot and I think it was more the trophy aspect of (the building), but they have definitely scaled back,” Hitch said. “They did not have use for the entire building anymore.”

The property also has 44 covered grade-level and below-ground parking spaces.

“It’s a trophy property,” Hitch said. “I’ve worked on this building for years and years with the sellers, whether it be in a leasing or selling capacity. (Markus) has been trying to buy this building for five years. He would make an offer every six months. He just kept at it and kept at it. He ended up being the guy. The sellers admired how he went about things.

Markus is also leading the development of the site of the former Mountain King Chinese restaurant and a Talmer Bank branch farther south down Old Woodward.

There, construction has started on what is expected to be a five-story building anchored by the Dykema Gossett LP law firm.

Markus has also been working on a project in Livonia at Six Mile and Haggerty roads at the site of a former Comerica Inc. building, looking to add apartments and a Whole Foods to the property.

— Crain’s Detroit Business Senior Reporter Kurt Nagl contributed to this report.