The owner of this firm, Richard Blum, UC Regent and husband to Senator Dianne Feinstein, is also Chairman of the Board of the politically entrenched real estate firm CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). Through leveraging his position as UC Regent, Mr. Blum has brought outsize benefits to Blum Capital Partners by exploiting UC’s sizable investment portfolio. He has directed a multitude of university build projects to his very own real estate company, even going so far as to construct a building named after himself on the UC Berkeley campus from which he personally profited. Thanks to his wife, Senator Feinstein, Blum’s real estate firm CBRE won contracts from the FDIC to handle the state’s residential foreclosures at above market rates, despite the firm’s weak track record in the field. As part of the nationwide threat to public services, the closing and selling off of California’s historic post offices have been contracted out to none other than Mr. Blum’s own CBRE, allowing him to profit from the public’s great loss of priceless buildings and works of art housed in them. 

Richard Blum and his companies exemplify the intractability of corporate influence on public policy, the marriage of wealth to politics and the incestuous twining of the two. In today’s political discourse, privatization is too often pitched as the only alternative, as necessary “reform”. “We are here today to stand for real reform: the removal influence over public policy by the 1% and their corporate allies, the establishment of true public accountability, and the preservation of public services,” stated OBAU member Jane Smith. 

Occupy Bay Area United is committed to nonviolent direct action. You can find more information, including schedules of our events, and information about our weekly General Assemblies at www.obau.org. Follow #OBAU on Twitter at @occbayareautd

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Article source: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2012-11-30/article/40566?headline=Occupy-Bay-Area-Takes-Over-Richard-Blum-s-Corporation-in-San-Francisco-Tonight-to-Protest-Sale-of-Post-Offices--

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Nov 29, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Harvest Properties, a commercial real estate investment and development
firm based in Emeryville, today announced with Prudential Real Estate
Investors that it has signed global business communications giant Avaya
to a 275,155 square-foot lease agreement.

Avaya plans to relocate employees and operations now dispersed in
several facilities and offices to the Towers at Great America in Santa
Clara, which is owned by PREI(R) and managed by Harvest
Properties. Avaya currently sublets 200,000 square feet at the property.

By mid-2012, Avaya will occupy about 43 percent of the 645,651
square-foot office complex located at 4555, 4557 and 4655 Great America
Parkway. Avaya joins other substantial tech tenants to the Towers at
Great America, including Tellabs Operations and Citrix.

Avaya was represented in lease negotiations by Douglas Sugimoto of
Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank; PREI was represented by
Christian Marent and Bob Steinbock of CB Richard Ellis. Terms of the
deal were undisclosed.

The 10-year old office campus was acquired by PREI in 2001 from Nortel
Networks as a sale-lease back; following Nortel’s Chapter 11 filing,
PREI repositioned the single tenant campus to a multi-tenant office
park. In October 2009, Harvest Properties partnered with PREI to oversee
the repositioning, which included substantial lobby upgrades and common
area finishes, multiple exterior signage sites and tenant identity, and
shared amenities including an upscale cafe, an on-site management
office, state-of-the-art fitness facilities and conference centers, all
completed in 2010.

The Towers’ existing infrastructure, abundant parking, attractive
grounds and desirable location rounded out the package that attracted
Avaya to the office campus.

“Avaya recognized the value in the buildings’ modern facilities and
infrastructure, convenient location and on-site property management,”
said John Winther, founder and managing partner of Harvest Properties.
“The sheer size of the campus allows Avaya to consolidate and streamline
its operations by relocating employees and facilities to one centralized
campus,” said Winther.

“Avaya is a long-term tenant of The Towers at Great America, and it
speaks well of our business relationship that Avaya is leasing more
space,” said Kristin Paul, a director with PREI. “This sizable
transaction bodes well for the overall local market and the
repositioning of the asset provides an attractive and desirable location
for Avaya and other technology-related tenants,” added Paul.

About Avaya

Avaya is a global leader in next-generation business collaboration and
communications solutions. The company provides unified communications,
real-time video collaboration, contact center and data solutions, and
related services directly and through its channel partners to
organizations and companies of all sizes around the world. For more
information, please visit
www.avaya.com .

About Prudential Real Estate Investors

PREI is a leader in the global real estate investment management
business, offering a broad range of investment vehicles that invest in
private and public market opportunities in the United States, Europe,
the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Headquartered in
Parsippany, N.J., PREI has other offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New
York, San Francisco, Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Munich, Paris,
Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Beijing,
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo; as well as representatives in Milan and
Zurich. As of June 30, 2011, PREI managed approximately $48.1 billion in
gross real estate assets ($30.2 billion net) on behalf of more than 490
clients worldwide. For more information, visit
http://www.prei.com .

About Harvest Properties

Founded in 2002, Harvest Properties is a leading full service commercial
real estate investment firm specializing in acquiring, developing,
managing and financing commercial property, primarily through
joint-venture investments in northern California. Harvest Properties
strives to generate attractive returns for its financial partners and
provide creative real estate solutions and outstanding service.

Harvest Properties portfolio comprises approximately eight million
square feet of office, industrial, RD and retail properties in the San
Francisco Bay Area. For more information, please visit
www.harvestproperties.net .

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50086367lang=en

SOURCE: Harvest Properties

        for Harvest Properties
        Julie Wellik, 415-472-3878
        jwellik@pacbell.net
        or
        Harvest Properties
        Sarah Irving, 510-594-2050 ext. 113
        Partner

Copyright Business Wire 2011

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/harvest-properties-and-prudential-real-estate-investors-ink-275000-sf-lease-deal-with-avaya-2011-11-29

By Mark Puente, Times Staff Writer

In Print: Friday, October 28, 2011

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The Tampa Bay commercial real estate market is no longer in the basement but remains far from the penthouse.

A bright spot in a national report released this week shows the commercial sector has improved in the bay area and other parts of Florida amid the languishing economy and lackluster job growth.

The report ranked the bay area as the 33rd best of 51 metro areas for investment in commercial real estate. Overall, the bay area improved to fair this year from poor last year, according to the “Emerging Trends in Real Estate” report by the nonprofit Urban Land Institute and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“It shows we’re moving in the right direction,” said Ray Sandelli, head of the Tampa office of the CB Richard Ellis commercial real estate firm. “It will also challenge us to improve.”

Experts attribute the improvement locally to the commercial market not being overbuilt during the boom, and real estate prices correcting downward to match today’s market.

Statewide, Miami ranked 17th and recorded the biggest gains among major markets for investment opportunities. Foreign cash is flowing into the city because of political instability in Latin America, the report said. Orlando ranked 29th; Jacksonville ranked 40th. Detroit, Cleveland and Las Vegas were at the bottom.

Apartments are the safest place to park cash here and across the country, the report said. Nationally, brokers and investors of industrial properties, shopping centers, hotels and office buildings face a “slowing, grind-it-out recovery” in 2012.

Investment cash is gushing toward the 24-hour global gateways: Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York City, Boston and Seattle. Money is also following young professionals to pedestrian-friendly cities such as Portland, Ore., Seattle and Austin, Texas.

Not all experts buy into the report.

Larry Richey, senior managing director of Cushman Wakefield in Tampa, said the bay area is doing better and will never be near the top when compared to big metro areas on the East Coast and West Coast. But it would rank high among similarly sized metro areas.

Vacancy rates have dropped in office and industrial buildings as companies move to bigger offices or relocate from outside the region, he said. He pointed to Time Warner’s recent pledge to create 500 jobs in Hillsborough County and to spend $5 million on new facilities over the next five years.

The report, Richey said, doesn’t reflect all the gains made in 2011.

“It’s the most improvement we’ve seen in the last five years,” he said.

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Article source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/tampa-bays-commercial-real-estate-sector-rebounds-report-says/1198914

]]> http://homesmillbrae.com/1070/fewer-vacant-office-spaces/feed/ 0 http://homesmillbrae.com/634/cupertino-based-sobrato-sells-package-of-buildings-in-bay-area-for/ http://homesmillbrae.com/634/cupertino-based-sobrato-sells-package-of-buildings-in-bay-area-for/#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 17:35:52 +0000 http://homesmillbrae.com/634/cupertino-based-sobrato-sells-package-of-buildings-in-bay-area-for/ Continue reading →]]>

The Sobrato Organization, an iconic Silicon Valley developer, has sold a portfolio of buildings and land in Fremont, San Jose and Sunnyvale for a reported $80 million, in a deal that suggests investors think the tech sector has bounced back.

All told, 10 properties totaling 675,000 square feet, along with 2.7 acres of land, were involved in the April deal, brokers from CB Richard Ellis, a commercial realty firm, said Wednesday.

“The sale of the portfolio was part of a major diversification strategy that we have,” said Michael Field, director of commercial real estate for Cupertino-based Sobrato.

However, the deal also suggests that investors have become more bullish about the Bay Area economy overall — and Silicon Valley’s prospects in particular.

“People are betting that Silicon Valley is back in a big way,” said Jim Beeger, a senior vice president with Colliers International.

LBA Realty snapped up nine of the 10 properties, including the land. One of the Fremont buildings was sold by Sobrato to West Coast Quartz, which makes silicon and quartz components for semiconductor manufacturers.

Industry insiders think Sobrato obtained a sale price of about $80 million, or about $120 per square foot, for the sale of the 10 properties.

Sobrato and LBA executives didn’t officially discuss the financial details.

With Silicon Valley companies snapping up buildings at a swift pace, LBA has a decent chance to enjoy

appreciation in rental rates in the coming years.

“LBA should see some rent spikes over time,” said Rob Shannon, a senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis. “They bought a very stabilized portfolio. About 75 percent of it has long-term leases in place.”

High-quality tenants such as Asus Computer, Western Digital and Flextronics are among the tenants in the buildings, Shannon said. One building is empty.

The buyers also may be heartened because tech companies appear to still hunger for space.

“Demand is still very strong,” said Joseph Moriarty, a CB Richard Ellis senior vice president. “That helps building values.”

The Sobrato firm, on the heels of this transaction, bought the Fry’s Electronics building in Palo Alto.

“Fry’s will be a building that we will hold for some time,” Field said. “We don’t plan to redevelop it.” The consumer electronics retailer still has several years to go on its lease for the Palo Alto store.

Sobrato further diversified its holdings with a $95 million purchase of a 300,000-square-foot empty office complex in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district. That deal was completed recently.

The LBA-Sobrato deals also extend a period of busy activity for LBA, which has snapped up a number of high-profile complexes.

Among the LBA purchases in recent years was the company’s acquisition of three office towers in the Watergate complex in Emeryville. This past summer, LBA landed a big lease with Clorox, which is moving hundreds of workers a Pleasanton campus that LBA bought a few years ago.

Brokers think LBA is far from finished with its shopping spree.

“LBA is very bullish on the Bay Area,” said Eric Anderson, a vice president with Cornish Carey Commercial, a real estate firm. “They are looking long term. I wouldn’t be surprised if they buy more buildings before long.”

Brokers also think purchases of packages of several buildings in one transaction could be on the rise again. Those deals vanished during the recession.

“Buyers have a lot of money, and they want to put it into commercial real estate,” Beeger said. “In 2010, we literally had one big portfolio sale in Silicon Valley. They were very coming in 2007, and now they are coming back.”

Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477. Follow him at Twitter.com/george_avalos.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_18089836?source=most_emailed

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