Apple mega deal: tech titan launches huge Sunnyvale expansion that could accommodate thousands
Apple leases enough Sunnyvale space for 3,000 workers in biggest South Bay office deal of COVID era
By GEORGE AVALOS | Bay Area News Group | PUBLISHED: May 24, 2021 at 5:45 a.m. | UPDATED: May 24, 2021 at 2:01 p.m.
SUNNYVALE — Apple has struck a deal that will enable the tech titan to dramatically broaden its Silicon Valley presence by leasing a half-dozen big office buildings in Sunnyvale’s Pathline Park office complex.
The iPhone maker has leased 701,000 square feet of office space in the tech complex, which totals 1.3 million square feet and sits on 42 acres in a section of Sunnyvale called Peery Park, according to four commercial property experts familiar with Apple’s leasing agreement with park developer and owner Irvine Co.
This appears to be the largest South Bay office lease in either 2020 or so far in 2021, according to a review of quarterly reports from commercial real estate firms. That would also mean that the just-signed transaction is the largest South Bay lease since the onset of the coronavirus.
Apple’s rental deal runs counter to prognostications that the coronavirus has caused tech companies to lose their appetite for office space.
Apple leased six buildings in the new deal. Five of the just-rented office buildings are completed and one is under construction, according to the property experts. The lease was signed on or around May 19.
Cupertino-based Apple could potentially employ 2,800 to 3,500 workers in the six buildings that the company rented, based on customary spacing for each employee.
CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield, two commercial real estate firms that have been marketing Pathline Park, represented Irvine in the transaction.
Apple leased buildings on North Mary Avenue and Palomar Avenue, according to the sources:
— 650 N. Mary, 167,000 square feet.
— 600 N. Mary, 121,000 square feet.
— 700 N. Mary, 108,000 square feet.
— 725 N. Mary, 105,000 square feet.
— 750 N. Mary, 105,000 square feet.
— 625 Palomar, 95,000 square feet. This building is under construction.
Located near the intersection of North Mary Avenue and Almanor Avenue, and nearly adjacent to U.S. 101 and State Route 237, Pathline Park offers tech employees something of a refuge from the vehicle-choked freeways of the Bay Area.
Pathline Park’s name springs from a long pathway that meanders through the development past the project’s modern office buildings.
It wasn’t immediately clear when Apple might begin to occupy the five buildings that are complete. The building that’s under construction is scheduled for completion sometime during 2022.
Apple is no stranger to Sunnyvale, and also is no stranger to the Peery Park district. Apple already leases several modestly sized office buildings directly adjacent to Pathline Park.
It’s possible that Apple might shift some employees from these older nearby buildings to the brand-new offices in Pathline Park.
Apple also has leased a Sunnyvale campus at the corner of Central Expressway and Wolfe Road, a complex that features three curved buildings that total 777,000 square feet.
The Apple deal in Pathline Park appears to be the largest office deal, ranked by square footage, in the COVID era in the South Bay, according to a review of quarterly reports posted by Colliers, a commercial real estate firm.
The largest deal of 2020, which occurred during the January-through-March period prior to the full effect of coronavirus-linked business shutdowns, was a Google lease of 498,300 square feet in Sunnyvale.
Once the business shutdowns began, the largest South Bay office leasing deals over the one-year period that ended in March 2021 were a Guardant rental of 255,000 square feet in Palo Alto and Waymo’s sublease of 170,800 square feet in Mountain View, the Colliers reports show.
Apple didn’t respond to requests last week for a comment about the Pathline Park transaction. Irvine declined to discuss the leasing agreement it had reached with the tech titan. Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE declined to comment about the situation.
With the deal, all existing or under-construction office buildings in Pathline Park are fully leased.
Tech firms Proofpoint and Synopsys also lease space in the office complex. Synopsys rents about 350,000 square feet in three buildings in Pathline and Proofpoint leases about 242,000 square feet in two buildings.
“This deal is just what the valley needed in helping jump-start the recovery from COVID,” said Dave Sandlin, an executive vice president with Colliers, a commercial real estate firm. “You can expect many other companies to step up their real estate activity.”
Full article by George Avalos: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/24/apple-mega-deal-iphone-maker-huge-sunnyvale-expansion-real-estate-tech/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly&utm_content=Apple%20mega%20deal&utm_campaign=mercurynews.com-1032284