MAKING A PLAY FOR TECH FIRMS
Campus Center in Milpitas undergoes a wide-ranging upgrade in hopes of attracting groups displaced by Silicon Valley giants
A newly renovated office and research complex in Milpitas has begun to attract technology companies, including some firms that are being displaced by Silicon Valley tech titans’ expansions.
In recent years, Mountain View-based Google, Cupertino-based Apple and Menlo Park-based Facebook have widened their footprints and ventured well beyond their home bases. The tech titans are leasing, buying and scouting for an array of offices and vacant parcels to accommodate a growth boom that veteran commercial realty brokers say is unprecedented in Silicon Valley
The wide-ranging quest for prime office space in the Bay Area underscores some of the side effects of a remarkable economic and employment boom that has briskly added jobs in Santa Clara County and nearby metro centers. The growth surge has heightened the pressure to find places for employees to work and live.
Campus Center in Milpitas has undergone an extensive upgrade master- minded by developer Hudson Pacific Properties. The site currently consists of three large office buildings and land for future developments located on North Mc-.
Carthy Boulevard just north of State Route 237.
“We have three buildings ready for occupancy right now and we have land where we can accommodate office, research and development and industrial users,” said Drew Gordon, a senior vice president with Hudson Pacific. The site is being marketed by Cushman & Wakefield commercial realty brokers Steve Horton, Erik Hallgrimson, Kelly Yoder and Brandon Bain.
To be sure, Hudson Pacific would embrace interest in Campus Center from Google, Apple and Facebook. Yet Campus Center also offers a refuge for companies that hunger for office spaces in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara but that have been shut out in their leasing attempts.
“We are trading proposals with potential tenants,” said Horton, a Cushman & Wakefield vice chairman. “They know we can offer the three existing buildings and have the capacity for a lot of expansion.”
The buildings that are now available together total 472,000 square feet, while the 36 empty acres could accommodate up to 950,000 square feet of additional space. The land parcels are approved for offices, research space or industrial buildings, or a combination of the three types of property.
“We’re very optimistic about leasing the buildings,” said Hallgrimson, a Cushman & Wakefield executive managing director. “We are getting a lot of interest from tenants.”
Hudson Pacif ic also hopes to entice tenants with the project’s proximity to the McCarthy Ranch retail and restaurant center, as well as existing light rail stops and a future BART station in Milpitas. The development also will offer shuttles to transit hubs in Milpitas and downtown San Jose’s Diridon Station.
“The BART station in Milpitas is a big deal,” Gordon said. “We expect to benefit when that opens.”