Google Buys Mountain View Offices for $235M

In another big commercial real estate play, Google has made its largest purchase so far this year with the acquisition of a six-building portfolio in Mountain View, California for $235 million. Symantec, the popular software security firm, is currently leasing two of the buildings, where they will remain until their lease expires with Google serving as landlord. Google purchased the buildings from Equity Office, which acquired the properties when its parent, the Blackstone Group, acquired CarrAmerica Realty Corp. in 2006. As reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, the properties include:

- Mountain View Technology Center a 131,500-square-foot, two-building project at 313 and 323 Fairchild Drive, for which Google paid $82.2 million, or $625 per square foot.

- Gateway Center, a 236,400-square-foot project at 401 Ellis St. and 500 E. Middlefield Drive. Google paid $138.8 million, or $587 per square foot.

- 485 and 495 Clyde Ave., a pair of R&D buildings totaling 64,800 square feet. Google paid $15 million, or $230 per square foot.

"We haven't seen this kind of growth in a Bay Area tech company before," said Tom Foremski, editor of Silicon Valley Watch, an online site that tracks technology trends in the Bay Area.

"Google is in very-high-growth mode, obviously," said Phil Mahoney, a Cornish & Carey executive vice president who has handled several major leasing deals on behalf of property owners that were leasing offices to Google in Santa Clara County. "They have to put their employees somewhere."

"Google's growth is unique," said Tim Bajarin, principal analyst with Campbell-based Creative Strategies, a market research firm. "The Google search-engine business that's tied to their ads is growing exponentially. Their mobile is growing fast. They need much more staff to code, market and manage what they are doing in advertising, and more offices for those employees."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Apple Picks Up More Than 1 Million SF in Sunnyvale

Technology giant Apple has made moves in Sunnyvale, CA, picking up more than 1 million square feet of new office space that could accommodate as many as 5,000 employees. As the company continues to outgrow its space in Cupertino, Apple continues to lease new space and has, so far, agreed to lease a total of 1.2 million square feet in Sunnyvale according to city records and real estate brokers involved in the deals.

"It's a remarkable growth spurt for Apple," said Jim Beeger, senior vice president with Colliers International, a commercial realty brokerage, in a San Jose Mercury News article. "This is a 30-year-old company undergoing the type of explosive expansion that you see with a three-year-old startup."

"Cupertino is pretty much filled up because of Apple's growth, much like Mountain View is pretty much filled up because of Google," said Phil Mahoney, an executive vice president with realty firm Cornish & Carey Newmark Knight Frank. "Both Google and Apple need more room. Both of them decided to find space in Sunnyvale."

"As I look at my iPad and check my iPhone, it really strikes me how much Apple has been able to achieve and how they have remade themselves," said Reed Payne, an executive vice president with Kidder Mathews, a commercial realty firm. "The future is not only bright for Apple, but the future bodes well for all of Silicon Valley."

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.