Mountain View office, hotel complex draws interest from potential tenants
$250 million project hopes to lure both business, leisure clients
MOUNTAIN VIEW >> The brand-new Ameswell complex in Mountain View is being crafted to create a symbiotic relationship between its offices and hotel components, appealing to both business and leisure clients and offering a way to dodge after-work traffic, the project’s developers said Monday.
The $250 million Ameswell Mountain View project was bolstered by a $70 million construction loan that the developers, Broadreach Capital Partners and Rockwood Capital, obtained from Wells Fargo.
Now under construction, the development features a 220,000-square-foot, modern office building and a 255-room luxury hotel, which the builders anticipate will work in tandem.
“The hotel is designed to be an amenity for the office building,” said Philip “Flip” Maritz, a Broadreach managing director who will helm the hotel part of the development venture. “It’s meant to be a great after-work place with a big bar and restaurant, meeting spaces, a swimming pool, fitness center, beer garden, bocce, volleyball courts.” Open spaces, such as a central lawn and a forest section, also are attractions.
Some tech companies eyeing the development are already intrigued by the possibilities of leasing the entire office building. The triangle-shaped development site is bounded on the west by State Route 85, the north by U.S. 101 and the east by Moffett Boulevard, with an official address of 750 Moffett Blvd. Realty brokerage Newmark Knight Frank is seeking office tenants.
The Ameswell name is meant to evoke the nearby NASA Ames Research Center, launch pad for countless technology breakthroughs.
“The prospective tenants we have spoken to are very interested in using the meeting spaces at the hotel,” said John Foster, a managing partner with Broadreach. The hotel is due to open in 2020.
For Silicon Valley companies, the hotel’s proximity means lunch or after-hours meetings could occur at Ameswell and save employees trips in heavy commute traffic.
On weekends, the Ameswell Hotel could tap local and regional customers, offering facilities for weddings, receptions and parties. The hotel will be independently owned and operated.
Broadreach hopes the Ameswell Hotel will be akin to Menlo Park’s Rosewood Sand Hill luxury hotel, which Maritz developed and operated during his stint as chairman of Rosewood Hotels.
“We want the Ameswell Hotel to appeal to a somewhat younger
but still sophisticated clientele,” compared with the Rosewood Sand Hill, Maritz said.
Google, which has dramatically widened its footprint in its headquarters town of Mountain View, is likely among the companies eyeing the Ameswell offices. Facebook also has added Mountain View offices.
Although nothing is assured regarding tenants in the new office building, Broadreach is fresh from a successful leasing deal with Google at a new office building two miles away at 1625 Plymouth Ave.
In both the Ameswell and Plymouth Avenue office buildings, Broadreach added terraces where employees could enjoy views of San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains, East Bay hills, Mount Diablo and even the towers of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose.
“The preliminary interest has been very good” in the Ameswell office building, Foster said. “We think that when we erect the steel, the interest will get more serious.”