Jamba to move its HQ to Texas

Juicemaker will relocate head offices and support center out of Emeryville

EMERYVILLE — The owner of Jamba Juice will move its headquarters out of Emeryville and defect to Texas, partly driven by the cost of doing business in the Bay Area, according to company statements Thursday and a regulatory filing.

About 120 employees in Emeryville are affected by the relocation, according to Jamba, a maker and retailer of smoothies and other beverages.

“As we continue to spread our healthy living mission globally, it has become increasingly clear that a relocation of our support center will better position the company to extend our brand,” said David Pace, chief executive of Jamba, whose subsidiary is Jamba Juice.

Emeryville-based Jamba will

move its headquarters and support center to a Texas suburb called Frisco, which is in the Dallas area.

Jamba struck a deal to lease about 25,000 square feet in the Dallas suburb, according to an official filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Jamba now leases 37,000 square feet for its headquarters in Emeryville, SEC files show.

“The cost of doing business in the Bay Area was one of the factors,” said Mike Fuccillo, a spokesman for Jamba.

Other factors were in play, the company said.

“As we continue to build more stores to the east, we wanted a location that was more centralized,” Fuccillo said.

Not everyone will be given the opportunity to relocate to the new offices. The precise numbers weren’t disclosed.

At its Emeryville headquarters, Jamba is paying roughly $1.2 million a year to rent its office space, which works out to about $2.70 a square foot per month, the company’s annual report stated.

But landlords are asking for $3 to $4 a square foot for office spaces in the Oakland and Emeryville areas.

This means Jamba, with its lease up in early 2017, will likely escape a big rent bump in the neighborhood of a 30 percent increase.

In Texas, Jamba will pay about $68,000 a month for the first 18 months of the lease term, which works out to about $2.70 a square foot in rent for the initial stages of the lease, SEC filings show.

Plus, Jamba won’t be charged rent for the first six months of the lease in Texas.

“We explored a number of location options that would offer us competitive operating costs, a region with extensive access to skilled restaurant talent, an attractive cost of living to our current and future team members and a geographical location that facilitates our ability to expand,” Jamba CEO Pace said. “Texas meets all of these criteria.”

Jamba’s pending departure from the Bay Area is sure to intensify the debate about the effects that expensive homes and regulatory burdens have on California’s ability to attract and retain businesses.

“Maybe we are getting to the point where some companies say it doesn’t make sense to be here,” said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley. “Perhaps for some nontechnology companies, it doesn’t pencil out to be in the Bay Area.”