Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Jamie Feldman - UBS.
Jamie Feldman - UBS
So, Joel, you'd mentioned the 80 basis point occupancy decline in the fourth quarter. Could you talk a little bit about what's in there and what's included - how you're thinking about it going forward, the assumption in guidance for occupancy?
And then also what are you guys assuming for Cell Genesys, that space, as '09 progresses?
Joel Marcus
Okay. I think when you look at occupancy in this world, it is hard to predict virtually anything. I think some of the weakness in San Diego and Maryland is not surprising. Those have historically been markets that have been softer historically over the last few years compared to the other markets that we are in, and so we saw the same thing. We did have one space that came back to us in Maryland which contributed to some of that softness in the occupancy.
But I would say that's probably, of all the factors going forward, the one that probably we have the least best crystal ball. It just is very difficult. I think you can tell by the amount of space we leased this quarter - 513,000 square feet - it's pretty remarkable and unbelievable, in a sense, given, again, the worst quarter in the financial history of certainly our reporting quarters.
So I would say we are working very hard to maintain occupancy in each of the markets, but it's hard to give any absolute numbers. I think if you go back to '98 and 2001, maybe, as some kind of a proxy. If you look at how Alexandria compared to office companies during those two years and you look at overall same-store obviously made up of both rate and occupancy components, we did decline in those time periods, but far less than generic office. And fortunately, we stayed positive; we've stayed positive every quarter, so we hope that will continue. So that's kind of the view on occupancy.
On Cell Genesys, we are working hard. As I think we said, I don't want to make any comments publicly at this point, but we are working hard to re-lease that building as we speak. And, again, we hope to have very positive news on that.
Operator
Your next question comes from Mark Biffert - Oppenheimer.
Mark Biffert - Oppenheimer
Joel, the first question, you guys had mentioned that you're expecting a 5% rate increase. Is that a net effective rent or are you including concessions that you may be offering and, if you are offering concessions in your leases, what are they? And then what, in terms of length of terms, are you seeing or are you signing with renewals or new leases?
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