Newcastle Partners expects to sign more leases soon in Centre Pointe, a 197,000-square-foot office complex in Walnut Creek that the firm recently bought. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Newcastle Partners is betting that the Shadelands Business Park, a long struggling office submarket in Walnut Creek, is poised to make a comeback.

The San Francisco-based investor and developer recently snapped up Centre Pointe, a six-building, 197,000-square-foot office complex at 165 – 215 Lennon Lane, from seller Sun Life Financial, which has partnered with Newcastle on other projects.

The price was estimated at close to $21 million or $105 to $110 per square foot, according to Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank.

Dennis Higgins, managing partner of Newcastle, said he expects Shadelands to see more leasing and activity from healthcare tenants and Safeway Inc.’s proposed, 25-acre retail and senior housing project (read more here).

“The basis for which we were able to purchase Center Pointe was very attractive,” Higgs said. “Historically, the Shadelands hasn’t been the most popular submarket, but we think that with an aggressive basis and all the changes in the neighborhood, it’s going to be an attractive area.”

Newcastle, founded in 1999 by Higgs, owns office and industrial properties throughout California and tends to go after value-add properties in the Bay Area.

Center Pointe was 85 percent leased at the time of the deal and Newcastle expects to sign on new tenants soon.

In the past year, the firm has picked up properties including the 80,000-square-foot 246 First St. in San Francisco with partner Stockbridge Capital Group, the 225,000-square foot Great America Place office complex in Santa Clara and a few small buildings in San Francisco’s Jackson Square area.

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

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/07/newcastle-bets-on-shadelands-buys.html

Station 2, the HOK-designed building Shutterfly will likely occupy at Bay Meadows

J.K. Dineen
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Shutterfly is looking at possibly moving its corporate headquarters to Bay Meadows in San Mateo, but corporate officials cautioned that nothing has been signed yet.

Several Peninsula brokerages sources stated that the digital personalized photo firm is looking at taking all the office space in Station 2, one of five office buildings slated for the 83-acre former racetrack. The five-building campus will total 763,000 square feet.

Gretchen Sloan, Shutterfly’s director of corporate communications, said that no lease has been signed and that the company continues to look at its options across the Bay Area. The company is growing and currently has 40 job openings, according to its website.

Station 2, located at the southwest corner of Delaware Street and 28th Avenue, is an L-shaped structure composed of two rectangular wings — one parallel to 28th Avenue and the other adjacent to the Caltrain rail line. The building includes large floor plates on levels two through four, with space for retail and active use on a portion of the ground floor. A landscaped courtyard links the building’s two-story office lobby to Delaware Street. Parking is hidden below the building and within its lower levels at the rear of each wing. The building includes 177,000 square feet of office space and 11,000 square feet of retail, which will include a 3,000-square-foot restaurant.

The architect is HOK.

Shutterfly is currently located in Redwood City at 2800 Bridge Pkwy.

Bay Meadows master developers Wilson Meany and Stockbridge Capital Group have submitted building permits for foundation and grading on Station Blocks two, three, and four. The developers have also pulled a superstructure permit for Station Block Two, the building Shutterfly is looking to take, according to Darcy Forsell, an associate planner with the city.

Shutterfly makes photo books, personalized holiday cards, announcements, invitations and stationery, as well as custom home decor products and photo gifts

The potential Shutterfly lease comes as Bay Meadows is making tracks on multiple fronts. This week Wilson Meany and Stockbridge announced that they have started construction on Field House, a 108-unit apartment complex. In addition TRI Pointe Homes and Shea Home are well underway on 156 for sale town homes, 97 of which have been permitted. The 30 homes released so far sold out immediately.

Bay Meadows will also include a 12-acre park and a campus for the Nueva School, an independent school that is building a 2.76-acre high school.

On May 28th Forsell gave San Mateo planning commissioners an update on the project and said that she expects the three Bay Meadows office buildings could be under construction this summer.

A Shutterfly deal at Bay Meadows would be a huge boost for the development, which a decade in the making, is an ambitious effort to build a dense, mixed-use, transit-oriented community in an area that often resists density and change.

J.K. Dineen covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/05/bay-meadows-lands-first-big-corporate.html?page=all