Bay Area Companies Make Big Plays For Larger HQs In 2017
From Apple to Facebook and Google, the Bay Area is a prominent region for companies to set up their headquarters. These tech giants are not the only major companies moving headquarters and expanding their Bay Area footprints. An active year of leasing throughout the Bay Area led to companies finding bigger spaces, consolidating and moving to locations with cheaper rents and closer to where employees live.
Check out some of the recent headquarters moves from several prominent companies in the Bay Area:
Hewlett Packard Enterprises
Current Location: Palo Alto
New Locations: 3333 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara; 211 River Oaks Parkway, San Jose; 900 North McCarthy Blvd., Milpitas
HPE is moving from Palo Alto into several locations in the South Bay. Its head offices will transition to the Santa Clara location, currently head offices of Aruba Networks, which HPE previously purchased. The Santa Clara offices are part of The Campus at 3333, which was developed by Menlo Equities and Beacon Capital Partners, and has been sold to various investors. HPE will occupy 250K SF at this complex.
The San Jose location is currently occupied by Nimble Storage, another company bought by HPE. All of these facilities are newer than its older buildings, which include 3000 Hanover St. in Palo Alto, which was part of the company’s early days as Hewlett-Packard. HPE plans to sell the Palo Alto site and will complete its move by October.
Blue Shield
Current Location: 50 Beale St., San Francisco
Current Office Size: 140K SF
New Location: 601 City Center, Oakland
New Office Size: 200K SF
Blue Shield's planned move from San Francisco to Oakland helped get a long-stalled office tower project up and running in downtown Oakland. The 600K SF office building from Shorenstein and MetLife is expected to be completed by January 2019. Blue Shield decided to move to Oakland since two-thirds of its employees working in San Francisco live in the East Bay and could save the company $26M over the term of the new lease.
Uber
Current Location: Three offices on Market Street in Downtown San Francisco
New Location: 1455 and 1515 Third St., San Francisco
New Lease: 422K SF
Uber plans to move its employees from its three offices along Market Street into a new Mission Bay headquarters beginning late 2019 with offices fully open by early 2020. The offices are being developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Uber’s consolidation into Mission Bay was a complete change of strategy from a year ago when it was in the process of developing an Oakland office at Uptown Station. It has since sold the property to CIM Group for $175M.
Veritas Technologies
Current Location: 500 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View
New Location: 2625 Augustine Drive, Santa Clara Square, Santa Clara
New Lease: 145K SF
Veritas Technologies is heading to one of Santa Clara’s newest office complexes in 2018 following its lease at Irvine Co.’s Santa Clara Square. The company was attracted to the new modern amenities, better lighting and floor plan, Veritas spokeswoman Dayna Fried told The Mercury News. Veritas employs about 800 people in Mountain View.
Pacific Biosciences
New Location: 1305 O’Brien Drive, Menlo Park
New Lease: 180K SF
Pacific Biosciences expanded its presence significantly at Tarlton Properties’ Menlo Park labs after starting with 10K SF several years ago. The biotech company moved into the revamped building earlier this year. The building was previously an OfficeMax distribution facility. The complex offers a two-story lobby, exterior amenities, research labs, manufacturing floor space and a conference center. PacBio’s new lease runs through 2027.
Exelixis
Current Location: South San Francisco
New Location: 1751, 1801, 1851 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda
New Lease: 110K SF
The large oncology pharmaceutical company will head to Alameda after 25 years in South San Francisco. It signed a 10-year lease with Ascentris and will move beginning in February. The Waterfront, a 385K SF office park spanning six buildings will be fully occupied following Exelixis’s move, according to CoStar.
Lucid Motors
Current Location: 125 Constitution Drive, Menlo Park
New Location: 7500 Gateway Blvd., Newark
Lucid Motors will move across the bay to BioMed Realty's Pacific Research Center in Newark as part of its expansion. Its new location will be nearly double the current space and provide a larger design studio and more lab and office space, the San Francisco Business Times reports. It also will be near its prototype shop in Fremont, which unveiled its first car in 2016. The company is developing all-electric luxury sedans. It employs about 300 workers in Menlo Park.
Oakland Athletics
Current Location: Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena
New Location: Jack London Square, Oakland
New Lease: 40K SF
The Oakland Athletics will consolidate their team headquarters at a new location in Jack London Square effective January. The team leased space from CIM Group and will bring staff together in one location. The new office will be in a six-story office building at Harrison Street, which also serves as administrative offices for Sunset Magazine.
California Casualty Management Co.
Current Location: 1900 Alameda de las Pulgas, San Mateo
New Location: Crossroads II, 1875 South Grant St., San Mateo
New Lease: 31K SF
California Casualty Management Co. will move its headquarters after 47 years in the same location. The new HQ will provide a modern, efficient workplace for 110 employees. The move-in at its new 31K SF headquarters will take place during Memorial Day weekend and the company will occupy the eighth and 10th floors.
Savills Studley Corporate Managing Director Luke Raimondo and Senior Managing Director Matt Chatham have been assisting the insurance company with its headquarters move.
