News
Lowe Looks High
August 17, 2011
| With the tech industry popping, Lowe Enterprises Real Estate Group is looking to expand its NorCal portfolio. Yesterday we chatted with the company’s new San Fran point man, SVP Hanns Lee. He oversees acquisitions, investments, and developments, including Lowe’s newly acquired North First Street site in San Jose. |
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| Hanns tells us the 43-acre development is entitled for more than 2M SF of office uses and should speak well to the area's big base of technology tenants. It’s located in the Golden Triangle (defined by highways 101, 880, and 237, as if you didn’t know), one of north San Jose’s most desirable locations. With Palo Alto and Mountain View filled up, “the momentum is heading in that direction.” He sees an opportunity for a large user to develop a corporate HQ or regional campus. The company is just in the process of interviewing architects, and construction timing largely will be market-dependent. But if there’s a good match between a user and the buildings they end up designing, “it’s possible for us to be out of the ground by the end of next year.” |
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| Hanns is also responsible for ongoing management and development of Clearview Business Park, a suburban office complex in San Mateo. Lowe plans to entitle another 130k SF and hopes to begin marketing in the fall. Formerly a regional HQ for Visa USA, the project contains 270k SF of existing space, which was vacant when Lowe acquired it. Today it’s about 60% leased with "good activity" on the remaining 40%, which is he's optimistic about adding to the campus. Hanns tells us Lowe is “ideally positioned” to take advantage of the recovery in the local markets. While remaining focused on its activities up and down the 101 Corridor—the Peninsula and South Bay—the company’s also looking at value-added opportunities in The City. |
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| Lowe previously developed 500 Terry Francois, a 300k SF, LEED Silver office building in Mission Bay, acquired by CBRE Investors in 2008. The Sobrato Organization and TMG Partners bought it earlier this year for $91M. Hanns, who was born in Germany (but grew up in the US), is no stranger to San Francisco—he served as director of NorCal acquisitions for Hines, where he completed more than $1B of deals. (He might even be able to tell you where to find a good plate ofschnitzel.) At Hines, Hanns worked on predevelopment activities for Transbay Tower, a spec office project planned for 1.3M SF, as well as the 100 Montgomery and Parkside Towers projects. The latter was a “virtually empty” building that Hines re-leased to 99% occupied before selling. Hanns has two young boys (five and six), so when he’s not scouting sites, you often can find him engaged in coach-pitch and T-ball. |
