Neighboring sites in San Jose sell for $48.3M

SAN JOSE >> A realty investor’s sale of adjacent north San Jose sites for a combined $48.3 million in one instance could make it easier for a tech company to stay in Silicon Valley and in the other case provide an investment for some Stockton residents.

The seller in both transactions, which occurred earlier this month, was an affiliate controlled by KBS Realty Advisors, which appears to be in the early stages of selling off chunks of a big north San Jose technology park that it bought in 2013.

Microchip Technology, a semiconductor maker, paid $40.8 million to KBS Realty to acquire a 4.8-acre site at 450 Holger Way on April 4 that includes a 93,000-square-foot building occupied by Microchip, Santa Clara County property records show.

On Friday, MSK Ventures and Sierra Vista Apartments, both based on Stockton, paid $7.5 million to buy a 2.8-acre site with a 20,000-square-foot building at 475 Holger Way occupied by Yamaichi Electronics USA, county documents disclose.

However, the two principal buyers are affiliated with John Zeiter and Michael Keely, both Stockton residents, a search of public records databases shows.

Arizona-based Microchip Technology appeared to be seeking ways to keep a cap on its property costs at a time when office rents and research building rents have been rising and tech giants such as Google, Apple and Facebook hunger for expansion sites.

“Microchip bought the building because it is a lower cost to operate an owned building compared to a leased building,” said Brian Thorsen, a spokesman for Microchip Technology.

A building of the size that Microchip Technology occupies could potentially accommodate 465 employees. The company declined to disclose the number of workers it employs there.

“At that facility we do various research and development, sales, customer support and administrative activities,” Thorsen said.

In recent years, big technology companies, including Cupertino-based Apple,

Mountain View-based Google and Menlo Parkbased Facebook, have been buying properties or leasing buildings for the purposes of future development or swift occupancy.

Experts believe the level of property acquisition and rental activity by tech companies of all sizes, but especially by the behemoths of the digital sector, is occurring at an unprecedented rate in Silicon Valley.

For that reason, it can make sense for technology companies to buy buildings when they can, according to Don Reimann, an executive vice president with Colliers International, a commercial real estate brokerage.

“Tenants that are building product lines, hiring people, or they are a stable company at the time of the transaction, those kinds of tech companies may look at locking down a property and owing it,” Reimann said.