$450M buy for PG&E’s new Oakland headquarters office complex completed
OAKLAND >> TMG Partners has completed its purchase of a big mixeduse office complex in downtown Oakland that paves the way for PG&E to shift its headquarters and thousands of jobs to the East Bay’s largest city.
As part of TMG’s purchase of the office and retail complex at 300 Lakeside Drive, PG&E has signed a lease for the office tower and has obtained an option to buy it, documents filed on Oct. 30 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office show.
TMG paid $449.8 million for the landmark property, which is perched next to Lake Merritt, according to Alameda County public records.
Included in the purchase: a 28- story office tower totaling 824,500 square feet that will serve as PG& E’s future headquarters, an adjacent office and retail complex totaling 130,000 square feet at 344 Thomas L. Berkley Way, a landscaped rooftop garden, and a 1,339- stall parking garage.
Goldman Sachs Bank USA agreed to provide up to $430 million to finance the purchase by TMG, which used affiliate BA2 300 Lakeside to buy the property, the county records show.
The seller was a joint venture of Swig Co. and Rockpoint Group, according to public documents filed on Oct. 30.
The deal looks to be a winning transaction for Oakland, the buyer,
the seller, and PG&E:
• Oakland gains 4,500 jobs.
• TMG lands an immediate tenant, has the potential to redevelop the portion of the property that PG&E isn’t occupying, and has the prospect of a deal to sell the office tower to PG&E.
• Sellers Swig and Rockpoint appear to have gained a hefty profit with the sale. The complex had a $197 million value in 2016 when Rockpoint paid $147.8 million to obtain a 75 percent stake in the property.
• PG& E will be able to move into a downtown Oakland office complex where the utility giant believes it can operate more efficiently than is the case for the company in San Francisco.
The relocation will occur in phases and will bring together PG&E workers from San Francisco and San Ramon.
“PG& E intends to use the Lakeside Building as its new corporate headquarters, where it can consolidate approximately 4,500 employees currently spread across the San Francisco general offices and at least two satellite offices,” PG&E stated in a filing with the state Public Utilities Commission.