‘Shopping spree for properties’

County seeking space formore county offices expected to spend $232 million

Santa Clara County, anxious to find offices for its expanding government workforce, has launched a buying binge for buildings at choice sites in San Jose, paying a combined $232 million for the properties, county documents show.

“We are looking for more spaces for our employees to be able to operate more efficiently and to provide services more effectively to our residents,” said Jef frey Draper, Santa Clara County’s director of facilities and fleet.

In 2013, Santa Clara County employed 14,000 people, compared with a current county workforce of 20,000, according to Draper.

“We have some offices where two or three people are sharing a cubicle,” Draper said.

Yet one veteran property expert says it might be wiser for the county to focus its money and resources on essential services at a time when solutions to the housing crisis and transpor- tation woes seem elusive.

“It’s probably better for the county to own rather than to lease properties, but the county’s strength is not in real estate acquisition and development,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning consultancy.

The first deal, completed in July, involved a $ 174 million purchase of four buildings, at 110, 130, 150 and 180 W. Tasman Drive in north San Jose, according to a county memo and Draper. The buildings total 435,000 square feet, for a price of $ 400 a square foot.

The second deal, due to be completed in November, would total $ 58 million, county documents show. This transaction involves five buildings at a southeast San Jose site bounded