Del Monte Foods Jumps To East Bay

Del Monte Foods is taking a bite out of Walnut Creek: The famous food producer inked a 27k SF deal there and uprooted some city employees as a result. (As long as those employees don't get accidentally mixed in with the uprooted tomatoes that go into their tomato paste we'll be good.) More big-name corporate tenants are moving from S.F. and Silicon Valley markets to more affordable and accessible space in central Contra Costa County, says Transwestern managing director Ed Del Beccaro, who repped the landlord and phoned us on travel this morning in Houston to chat about deal deets. Some S.F. employees who worked in the Embarcadero relocated into the new admin office. The seven-story PMI Plaza at 3003 Oak Rd has the largest solar electric system on a commercial building in the East Bay. 

As social media and software industries expand like crazy in the city with high-density offices, rents are skyrocketing. But if you're a traditional user (regional HQ, engineering or insurance firm) and faced with renewal rates of $50 to $65/SF in parts of downtown, East Bay rents in the $30s/SF are appealing, he says. He's been waiting four to five years for this exodus to occur, and more medical tenants have already started to move admin functions from S.F. to Emeryville. Del Monte's move was quick, too: The tenant toured before Christmas and occupied Feb. 18. Ed worked with Transwestern VP Matt Hurd on the deal and Cushman's Eugene McGrane repped Del Monte.