mOasis Inc. leased 11,000 square feet in the Dowe Business Park in Union City. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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MOasis Inc. is taking its headquarters east to Union City from Mountain View.

The company, a maker of a polymer hydrogel, leased 11,000 square feet in the Dowe Business Park, a 354,000-square foot industrial park owned by Harsch Investment Properties.

The tenant, founded in 2010 at Stanford University, makes a gel used to store and preserve crops throughout California. The company says its product increases crop yields and helps farmers reduce their water and energy use.

“We’ve had the fortunate problem of outgrowing our lab space at Stanford a year ago, and in Mountain View most recently, and we are thrilled to find a new home at Dowe Business Park,” said Susanna Kass, CEO and president of mOasis Inc. “We now have a work space that offers both office and production space, as well as a lab. Dowe’s location is convenient for our East and South Bay-based employees and we look forward to the expansion and growth that the property will allow us.”

The property is now 85 percent occupied. It is close to Interstate 880 and both the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges.

“This is a great time for real estate activity in the East Bay, and our properties here are seeing steady growth,” said Don Little, senior vice president for Harsch Investment Properties in the Bay Area and head of development in three states.

Harsch, based in Portland, Ore., owns and operates 20 million square feet of office, multi-tenant industrial, multi-family and retail properties in five western states and has regional offices in Seattle, the Bay Area, Sacramento, Las Vegas, and San Diego.

Harsch Investment Properties was represented by Joe Yamin and Sean Sabarese of Colliers International.

MOasis Inc. was represented by Rick Keely and Aileen Dolby of Colliers International.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/01/moasis-moving-to-union-city-ditches.html

Austin Allison grinned.

“This looks great; it’s a hip, high-tech vibe,” he said, snapping photos with his iPhone. “It’s open, collaborative space.”

Allison, 26, was seeking a San Francisco base for DotLoop, the technology company he founded in his hometown of Cincinnati three years ago.

He and his wife, Angela Allison, 28, who runs a decorative painting company, plan to relocate to the city this month with their Yorkshire terrier, Paris.

The couple’s move and their quest for living and work space epitomize a modern-day migration being played out continually in the city. San Francisco’s pull as a high-tech hub and cachet as a place to live is drawing growing numbers of entrepreneurs and technology workers who move here from as nearby as Mountain View or as far away as India.

“The Bay Area has one of the most educated and creative workforces anywhere on the planet,” said Gabriel Metcalf, president of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. “For companies trying to be innovative, the Bay Area is one of the best locations there is. This sets up a ‘virtuous cycle’: The more companies that locate here, the more talent wants to be here, which then improves the attractiveness to more companies.”

Since early 2010, San Francisco’s number of tech sector workers has grown by 13,000, hitting 44,000, according to an analysis of state Employment Development Department data, said Colin Yasukochi, director of research and analysis at CNRE, a commercial real estate firm.

Growing tech hub

In the same time frame, 150 tech firms have set up shop in the city, bringing the total number of such enterprises to 1,850.

Meanwhile, 18 firms from outside the city are seeking office space here.

“We’re seeing the office market explode with an influx of tech companies,” said Donnette Clarens of Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank, DotLoop’s broker.

The Allisons – high school sweethearts – did an initial foray in May, seeking a base for DotLoop and an apartment for themselves, and lost out on some places by not pouncing quickly enough. They returned for two whirlwind days of hunting in late June.

Austin Allison dropped out of his second year of law school in 2009 to found DotLoop, which automates paperwork for real estate agents. Launched with angel capital, the company became profitable in 17 months, he said. In May, to accelerate growth, it took $7 million in funding from Trinity Ventures.

San Francisco is the clear place for that expansion to happen, he said.

“San Francisco has a talent pool that is different and more robust than the talent pool that exists in the Midwest,” he said. “Our office here will become our bleeding-edge tech arm, but our internal operations will stay in Cincinnati.”

He wants to hire 10 to 20 people in San Francisco within the next year. Having an office that projects the right vibe – “fun, cool, energetic, with lots of natural light, high ceilings and an open floor plan” and near amenities and transit – is a key part of recruitment, he said. Another big consideration is flexibility: a space that can grow with the company, or a shorter lease period in case it needs to relocate.

Then there’s price. “We want to be scrappy and prudent, but we don’t want to scrimp by holing up in a cave,” he said.

Average rents

DotLoop wanted to pay in the mid-$40s per square foot per year. That’s on target with the city’s first-quarter average rent of $46.66 a square foot, as tracked by Jones Lang LaSalle, which notes that rates are up 39 percent from the market bottom in 2010. The firm needs about 2,000 square feet to start.

Austin Allison has a strong preference to be in SoMa, near other up-and-coming tech firms. SoMa’s vacancy rate is 3.8 percent, Jones Lang LaSalle said; it hasn’t been that low since the height of the dot-com boom in 2000.

While incubator spaces offer flexibility, he feels DotLoop is past the startup phase of working cheek by jowl with other nascent companies, just as people outgrow group houses after college.

“We are a real company with products, revenue and customers, not a three-person startup with an idea,” he said. “Our space should reflect that.”

Like other tech folks, he eschews the type of traditional offices inhabited by lawyers and accountants.

That’s spurred an odd trend downtown: Landlords rip out walls and ceilings so Class A offices will look more like old warehouses.

“They are exposing natural brick that’s been sheet-rocked up for years, opening up the ceilings, trying to maximize window lines to get great light,” Clarens said. “It’s all about making it more attractive to creative-user tenants.”

Austin Allison made offers on two offices: A space one floor above the open-floor-plan Second Street office and a cheaper sublet. After two weeks of negotiations, DotLoop signed for the Second Street space, agreeing to a two-year lease on 1,900 square feet in the low $40s. A big plus was a contiguous office that will be available in a year, offering room to grow.

Housing budget

On the housing front, the Allisons were in the lucky position of having a $4,000-a-month budget. At that price range, they didn’t have to deal with cattle-call open houses where dozens of hopefuls jostle for favor with a rental agent.

Still, it was competitive. In May, they were surprised when apartments they toured got snapped up within hours.

The couple’s apartment wish list mirrored that for DotLoop’s office space.

“We’re steeped in that world of lofts with high ceilings and an industrial feel,” Angela said. “Most San Francisco places are older in style; SoMa and South Beach are the only areas with robust modern architecture.”

They decided to boost their monthly budget to $6,000, because a second bedroom to host DotLoop’s Cincinnati employees was a must.

They looked at condos being sublet and apartments for rent in several high-end high-rises: The Infinity near the Ferry Building, the Paramount and the Metropolitan in SoMa.

Sticker shock

A converted loft in a smaller building in Mint Plaza appealed to both for its industrial aesthetic – but it had just one bedroom. At the Brannan in South Park, a stunning view of the bay and ATT Park was a draw, but the $6,000-a-month condo’s biggest pluses were that it came fully furnished in a sleek, modern style; had two bed/bath suites separated by the living/dining room; and was near Highway 101 for quick access to SFO.

They decided to go for it and signed a one-year lease.

Not surprisingly, the couple had some sticker shock.

“Our Cincinnati condo is about $350,000; it easily would be $1.5 million out here,” Austin said. “Our Cincinnati office is less than $10 a square foot. It’s extremely competitive out here; the landlord has more leverage to dictate how the game is played.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Tech-firms-seeks-perfect-space-in-S-F-3691082.php

SF’s Clock Tower: home to lofts and those who love them…

Jenny Pisillo’s Eichler reverie brought to mind a living space design that could be considered a new-century modern cousin to the mid-century modern: the loft.  Like the Eichler, a loft space is designed to maximize light and space, showcasing an allegiance to clean, straight lines. Also like Eichelrs, lofts seem to inspire either adoration or derision, fervent emotions either way.

Lofts are decidedly urban in character. An Eichler you could find in the suburbs (cool suburbs, anyway) but a loft would be out of place without bright lights in the window, the buzz of city traffic and culture on the street outside. In some cases, again like Eichlers, lofts have been constructed for a middle-class buyer, generally as a  live/work space. But in the Bay Area, initial middle-class intentions can easily fall to the wayside when confronted by local estate values.

Of course, the Bay Area represents many different real estate micro-climates, so lofts in one part won’t be as pricey as lofts in another. San Francisco and Oakland offer two locations for illuminating comparison.

Though the more expensive of the two, in San Francisco you can (if you look hard) get a better deal than in past years on lofts, with many hitting the MLS at prices hundreds of thousands of dollars less than they were in 2007 and 2008. Here’s an example on Rausch- the unit sold for $800K in 2008, was listed in 2012 at $690K, and is now relisted at $660K. The interiors, exposed metal ceilings and cement, show as sexy and sleek to some, stark and depressingly industrial to others.

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60 Rausch loft for sale in SF

Main room. All photos via Redfin/MLS

Cement wall- love it or hate it?

Office with metal ceiling

Loft bath

Sweet shared roof deck

Going up in price, we find this loft in the Clock Tower on 2nd Street. This unit isn’t as cold as some lofts with its use of warm brick, honey-toned hard woods, and bright pops of color in kitchen and bath tiles. This one is listed at $899K, down from $949K in March of this year.

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461 2nd Street: Clock Tower Loft

Inside the main living area. Photos via Redfin/MLS

Dining area

Creative kitchen

Bed by the bricks

Sexy bath

Upstairs lounge area

Common garden space

Better deals, as per usual, are found in the East Bay. Oakland’s always converting some factory or another into arty looking lofts. This one is in the Pacific Cannery loft complex. We like it for its simple, clean layout that makes it feel much bigger than its 969 square feet.

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1201 Pine St., Oakland loft

Main room in loft

Loft kitchen

Stairs to upper-level

Loft bath

Loft closet, something these kinds of homes generally excel in

In the old Rossi Cigar Company building, here’s an  Oakland example we love, but again, the preponderance of unorganized open space might overwhelm some buyers who prefer a more structured layout. Price is now $299K, down from an original list of $340K.

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1411 Center St., Oakland loft for sale

Exterior (!). Photos via Redfin/MLS

Kitchen

Looking from kitchen to main room

Main room

Bedroom

The loft, unstaged– acres of space!

Clever kitchen, unstaged

So reader, post-tour, weigh in. Lofts:  modern gifts to urban living, or rectangles with delusions of grandeur?

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2012/05/08/love-them-or-hate-them-lofts-still-very-much-a-part-of-the-bay-area-market/