BGC Buying Cornish & Carey Commercial

BGC Partners, Inc. announced this week that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Cornish & Carey Commercial, one of the last regional independent real estate firms and a major player in Northern California commercial real estate. Cornish has been an affiliate of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF), the real estate firm under BGC Partners acquired in 2011, since 2010, and will now join the company operating in Northern California as Newmark Cornish & Carey. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Cornish's leadership — including all of its partners — will remain on board for the foreseeable future, according to a Sacramento Business Journal article.

"Our partnership with Cornish & Carey has been tremendously successful. We now have an even greater ability to provide clients in the important Northern California marketplace the complete array of NGKF's services including site selection, leasing advisory, facilities management, property management, project management, investment sales, global corporate services, and valuation among others," said NGKF CEO Barry Gosin in a statement. "A primary driver of NGKF's growth is acquiring spectacular talent in key markets. Cornish & Carey's commitment to serving clients, and its culture and performance, align perfectly with NGKF's client-centric service and growth model."

Formed in 1935 in Palo Alto, CA, Cornish & Carey employs more than 275 brokers and generated $135 million in revenue in 2012, according to a CoStar report. The two firms have operated under a business referral agreement since 2010. Cornish & Carey has offices in Emeryville, Hayward, Marin, Palo Alto, Pleasanton, Roseville, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Rosa and Walnut Creek.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

UC Davis Buys Vacant Office Building for $7.7M

The UC Davis Health System has purchased an empty office building in Sacramento from K&H California Inc. for $7.7 million, less than half the asking price. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, it was reported that Cornish & Carey Commercial negotiated the deal on behalf of the seller. K&H initially approached UC Davis to lease the property (previously occupied by Sacramento County Office of Social Services), but the university proposed a purchase agreement instead.

The two-story, 68,000-square-foot office building at 4875 Broadway will be renovated to provide office and support space for a variety of research programs, UC Davis Health System facilities director Mike Boyd said in a Sacramento Business Journal article. "We don't have immediate plans to get in and renovate the property, but expect to do so soon," Boyd said.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Microsoft Moving to Moffett Towers

Microsoft Corporation announced this week that it has entered into a long-term lease agreement to take up 237,000 square feet at Moffett Towers in Sunnyvale, California according to a GlobeSt.com article. The company will be making the move from its current spaces in Palo Alto and Mountain View, a total of roughly 160,000 square feet of space, and expects to begin occupying 1020 Enterprise Way in January 2012. While the terms of the deal were undisclosed, it's been reported that asking rates for Moffett Towers are $2.95 per square foot per month.

Moffett Towers is a 1.8 million square foot office/R&D campus in the heart of Silicon Valley developed by San Francisco-based Jay Paul Company. Other tenants include HP, which leased 393,776 square feet in April, and Motorola Mobility, which leased 236,444 square feet in March.

"Microsoft's lease is another significant endorsement from a market leader of the unparalleled Moffett Towers office park experience," said Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank Executive Vice President Phil Mahoney, which represents Jay Paul Company's Moffett Towers property in all leasing engagements. "Recent leasing activity at Moffett Towers alone has dropped the city of Sunnyvale's office vacancy rate nearly 10 percentage points. This state-of-the-art campus is changing the landscape of this real estate market."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.