Amazon buys site where factory closed

Tech titan pays over $200M for property in Santa Clara

SANTA CLARA >> An Amazon unit has paid well over $200 million for a big industrial site in Santa Clara where a factory had operated for decades before closing its doors in recent months, public real estate records show.

The property purchase runs counter to the narrative that tech companies in the Bay Area are solely in layoff mode at present with little thought for future expansion.

Amid the dreary drumbeat of job cuts, a number of tech companies continue to actively plan for growth down the road.

Amazon.com Services paid $237.8 million for the Owens Corning factory complex and adjacent acreage near the corner of Central Expressway and Lafayette Street in Santa Clara, documents filed on March 6 show. Amazon.com Services is a commerce and delivery unit of the tech titan.

The Amazon unit bought the site at 960 Central Expressway, which totals 41.5 acres, according to the records on file with the Santa Clara County Recorder's Office.

Owens Corning Insulating Systems, an affiliate controlled by Owens Corning, sold the two-parcel property to Amazon.

Amazon.com Services bought the property in an all-cash deal, the county public records show.

Seattle-based Amazon has previously sketched out plans in WARN notices to eliminate 524 jobs in the Bay Area, layoffs affecting workers in Sunnyvale and San Francisco.

In 2021, Owens Corning, a maker of fiberglass, insulation and roofing products, said that it would cease operations at the Santa Clara plant.

Around October 2022, Owens Corning laid off 225 workers in job cuts that were associated with the previously announced plant shutdown, the company stated in a WARN notice filed with state labor officials.

The 41.5-acre property is a potential development site, documents on file with Santa Clara city planners show.

A real estate firm had previously proposed three options for the development of the site. The project could

consist of some combination of industrial, logistics, or warehouse buildings, the preliminary development proposal shows.

Owens Corning had retained ownership of the site even while the development plans were being floated in Santa Clara.

The purchase by the e-commerce giant of the Santa Clara land suggests that Amazon continues to craft plans for future expansion in Silicon Valley, even while the company trims some segments of its business.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the company's plans for the site.