Everybody knows that the debt of
California is even larger than the debt in Greece so we watch carefully
for trends that could indicate of what's to come next. The population
of California is larger than the whole nation of Canada.
The
'sophisticated' investor appears to be working out their issues
quietly if this article dated 2010 March 2nd is any indication.
San
Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties has taken ownership of the
distressed Santa Clara Towers from Tishman Speyer in a consensual
transaction
 
ESSENTIALS
|
Santa
Clara Towers consists of twin, 11-story towers totaling
422,485 rentable square feet.
Built
in 1986 (Tower I) and 1998 (Tower II), the buildings feature
striking glass and granite exterior facades which stand out along
Silicon Valley’s 101-Corridor.
Santa
Clara Towers is located at the intersection of Highway 101 and
Great America Parkway, one of the most sought after locations by
both high-technology and service and sales related companies.
Highway 101 allows for immediate access to the core of Silicon
Valley and the San Francisco Peninsula, along with a myriad of
transportation options. |
| Property
Address |
3945
& 3965 Freedom Circle
Santa Clara, CA 95054
USA
|
| Year
Constructed |
1986/
1998 |
| Project/Building
Architect |
Hoover
Associates |
| Building
Owner |
Tishman
Speyer
Santa Clara Towers, L.P.
Santa Clara Towers II, L.P. |
| Previous
Building Owner |
McCandless
Management Corporation |
| Year
Purchased |
2007 |
| Building
Lender |
Lehman
Brothers |
| Structure |
Structural
steel |
| Number Of Floors |
11 |
| Rentable Area |
3945:
208,403
3965: 214,080 |
| Major
Tenants Square Footage |
McAfee
(208,368), Amkor Technologies (19,983), Wayne Mascia
Associates (10,939), Marubeni (9,634) |
| Floor
Plate Size |
20,000
sqf. |
| Floors
Above Grade |
11 |
| Slab
To Slab Height |
+/-
13.5’ |
| Floor
To Ceiling Height |
Floor
1 = 20’
Floors 2-10 = 9’ to t-bar
Floor 11 = 1‘ to t-bar |
| Window
Details |
Tinted
black glass in aluminum frames |
| Column
Spacing |
Typical
exterior 25’ x 40’ |
| Bay
Depth |
38’
to 42’ |
| Elevators |
Each
building has 6 elevators. |
| Parking |
1,408
stalls |
| Major
Tenants |
McAfee,
Amkor Technologies, Wayne Mascia Associates, Marubeni |
San Francisco-based Shorenstein
Properties has taken ownership of the distressed Santa Clara
Towers from Tishman Speyer in a consensual transaction.
The deal comes two years after
Shorenstein bought the $51 million mezzanine loan on the
210,000-squar- foot building, at 3945 & 3965 Freedom Circle in
Santa Clara.
Tishman Speyer spokesman Rich
Matthews said the company and its lenders “explored various ways
to restructure the debt, and ultimately decided that the best
course of action would be for the mezzanine debt holder to assume
ownership of the property.”
“The recent deterioration of
commercial real estate markets across the U.S. has created many
situations where the values of properties have fallen well below
the debt that encumbers them. This is especially true in the
Silicon Valley area and is true for Santa Clara Towers,” said
Matthews.
Tishman Speyer bought the
buildings from Birk McCandless for $213 million in 2007. One of
the two granite towers is 100 percent leased to McAfee Inc.; the
other has several tenants.
A Shorenstein spokesman
confirmed that Shorenstein Realty Investors Nine, L.P., which is
the holder of the mezzanine debt on Santa Clara Towers, has agreed
to assume ownership of the two 11-story office buildings. After
the transfer of ownership, the property will be managed by
Shorenstein Realty Services, an affiliate of Shorenstein
Properties.
“Consistent with all assets
in its real estate portfolio, Shorenstein intends to invest new
capital to maintain Santa Clara Towers’ premier status and high
occupancy rate and to position the asset to take advantage of the
anticipated recovery in the Silicon Valley office market,”
stated Shorenstein.
Other assets currently owned
and operated by Shorenstein Properties and its investment funds in
the Silicon Valley and the mid-Peninsula office markets include
601 California Ave. in Palo Alto; 5000 & 7000 Marina Blvd. in
Brisbane; 1400 & 1500 Seaport Blvd. in Redwood City; the
Oyster Point Business Park in South San Francisco and Cisco Tower
in Santa Clara. Shorenstein Properties owns and manages 24.2
million square feet nationwide. - 2010
March 2 BUSINESS
JOURNAL |
Taiwanese real estate investor Steven Pan has
finalized the purchase of 49 Stevenson St. for $24.2 million, the latest
sign that San Francisco's long-dormant investment market is starting to
come to life.
The $190-a-square-foot sale price represents a
40 percent decline for the value of the property, which the city currently
assesses at $41 million. The seller was Invesco.
The sale price would be consistent with the
other two similar second-tier downtown buildings that have sold in the
last six months. In November the Shorenstein family
bought 188 Spear St. for $170 a square foot, a 56 percent drop from the
$385 a square foot, or $56.9 million, the city assessed the
147,000-square-foot property for the last fiscal year. Another Class A
financial district building that sold last year, 250 Montgomery St.,
traded for $172 a square foot, also a 56 percent drop from its previous
sale in 2006.
Another Class A financial district building that
sold last year, 250 Montgomery St., traded for $172 a square foot, also a
56 percent drop from its previous sale in 2006.
The city's most recent office building sale was
211 Main St., which the CIM Group bought for $112 million, or $300 a
square foot. That building fetched a higher price per square foot because
it is 100 percent leased to Charles Schwab through 2018.
In the mid-1990s Pan cut a wide swath through
downtown San Francisco real estate circles, amassing a 1
million-square-foot portfolio with properties like the 700,000-square-foot
Pacific Center at 22 Fourth St, and the Chevron building at 225 Bush St.
He sold most of his properties between 1998 and 2000, telling the Business
Times at the time that “we’re so used to bargains and now it’s
absolutely impossible to find opportunities here.”
The San Francisco Business Times reported in
December that Pan had the building in contract. At the time TRI Commercial
Managing Director Anton Qiu, who has frequently represented Asian buyers
interested in San Francisco, predicted that the 49 Stevenson St. sale will
be the start of a trend.
“Since last summer I have noticed a lot of the
overseas investors who used to be active in the mid-90s are back,” said
Qiu.
Qiu said the Asian buyers have access to cheaper
debt than U.S. investors do, and thus are willing to settle for lower
capitalization rates, which is the ratio of annual net operating income
produced by a building divided by its value.
“The local guys were looking 9 cap and foreign
buyers looking at a 7 cap,” he said. “The cost of funds makes the
difference. They can pay a little more.”
Pan, which Forbes magazine ranks No. 34 on
Taiwan’s Richest 2009 with a net worth of $650 million, owns hotels and
is chairman of the Formosa International Hotels Group. His father, S.R.
Pan, started out in the Bay Area more than 40 years ago, buying up several
hundred acres along the Alameda shoreline and looking for good deals.
“If you own a bargain, you have to create
value with it,” Pan said in a 1998 Business Times interview. “To
create value, you don’t just sit on it.”
- 2010 January 11 BUSINESS TIMES
Millionaire households in Bay Area
Here's a breakdown by county of Bay Area
households with $1 million or more in financial assets:*
| County |
Households |
 |
| Alameda |
23,402 |
| Contra Costa |
20,829 |
| Marin |
7,047 |
| Napa |
2,468 |
| San Francisco |
11,391 |
| San Mateo |
14,486 |
| Santa Clara |
31,246 |
| Solano |
6,262 |
| Sonoma |
8,485 |
*Includes liquid financial assets such as
checking, savings and retirement accounts, mutual funds, stocks and bonds.
Figures don't add up to Bay Area total cited in text, which is based on a
market research region that doesn't precisely overlap county boundaries.
- Source: Claritas,
Merrill Lynch, Capgemini
2008 June 25
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
MARIN
county
Despite a 40 percent drop in real
estate prices in the Bay Area during the economic
downturn, affordable housing in Marin and other counties remains out of
reach for many working families.
That is the conclusion of a report issued
Thursday, "Priced Out: Persistence of the Workforce Housing Gap in the
San Francisco Bay Area," issued by the Washington D.C.-based Urban Land
Institute Terwillger Center for Workforce Housing.
"Despite this 40 percent drop,
working families are priced out of the housing market, and the rental market
as well," said Kevin Herglotz, spokesman for the center. "And with
the economy getting better the situation will only get worse."
The severity of the problem threatens the
region's future economic viability and, unless policy changes are made, new
home development will leave significant unmet demand, leaving thousands of
working families "priced out" of affordable housing options, the
report concludes.
"The basic need for affordable
housing is, in fact, growing, while the resources available are
diminishing," said Dave Coury, executive director of the Marin
Continuum of Housing and Services. "The old practices of restricting
land available for higher density affordable housing has resulted in an
inequitable and unsustainable situation. We import more than one-third of
our workers in the county at lower paid job levels, which is the fastest
growing segment in Marin."
Less than 10 percent of the homes for
sale in the Bay Area are affordable to a family in Marin making a combined
annual income of about $90,000, according to data provided by the report's
authors.
"Marin is probably the worst
affected in the entire Bay Area because the housing costs there are very,
very high," said Adam Ducker, managing director with Washington
D.C.-based RCLCO, which developed data for the report.
Approximately 30 percent of the Bay
Area's 2.7 million households fall in the workforce household income range.
That income can range as high as $100,000 annually and includes professions
such as teachers, firefighters and nurses.
The study analyzed the housing market in
Marin, along with Sonoma, Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, San Mateo, Santa
Clara, San Francisco and Solano counties. It found that only 15 percent of
the existing homes for sale in the Bay Area are affordable to workforce
households earning the median family income. That compares with between 50
and 60 percent in regions across the country similar to the Bay Area.
Every county in the Bay Area ranked as
being one of the least affordable in the country. Only New York City ranked
less affordable.
The report also found that high housing
costs are pervasive in the rental housing market, which serves 42 percent of
workforce households in the Bay Area. Workforce households have a much
higher propensity to rent in the Bay Area, especially among families, than
in similar metropolitan regions across the country.
And expensive Bay Area rents require a
workforce household to pay more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing,
more than in other metropolitan regions across the country.
The report concludes that the Bay Area
suffers from a workforce housing shortage that is among the most acute and
widespread in the nation. Despite the recent housing market downturn, the
high cost of housing remains a critical challenge to the long-term economic
health of the Bay Area because workers cannot afford to live here.
"If current trends continue, new
construction will fail to meet the significant projected demand for
workforce housing in the future," said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO
of the Bay Area Council. "Unless these issues are seriously addressed,
not only will Bay Area families continue to be priced out of housing
options, but the region's future economic viability will be
threatened."
There are groups working to address
affordable housing in Marin. The Marin Workforce Housing Trust, a
public-private partnership that was founded in 2004 to expand workforce
housing in Marin County, has raised more than $3 million and offers
low-interest loans from both for-profit and nonprofit developers seeking to
build affordable housing in Marin.
In October 2008 the county established an
affordable housing impact fee charged to builders depending on the size of a
structure.
And last year the Marin Community
Foundation announced plans for a $10 million, five-year plan aimed at
boosting the supply of affordable housing in Marin.
- 2010 February 18 MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
The City has floated a concept to
raise the heights of buildings in the Downtown Core. The idea would be to raise height limits on several blocks south of Market
Street to allow two towers as tall as the 853-foot Transamerica building and a
third that would climb at least an additional 150 feet -- to more than 1,000
feet tall. >>MORE
Computer renderings show how changes proposed for the Transbay Terminal
area might alter the skyline. The red images are towers higher than 850 feet.
The blue ones are towers now allowed.
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Silicon Valley High-Tech Rents Tumble
Rent in Silicon Valley for high-tech commercial real estate fell almost 30
percent in 2002, extending a slide that began a year earlier, according to a
study released on Thursday.
Annual rent for high-tech work space in Silicon Valley averaged $15.24 per square foot in the fourth quarter, down 29
percent from $21.48 per square foot in the first quarter, according to commercial real estate services company Cushman and Wakefield.
Average annual rents in the region had been as high as $50.88 per square foot in the first quarter of 2001.
Silicon Valley, home to scores of big and small technology companies, has been hammered by the high-tech industry's
downturn, sending local commercial rents tumbling as companies consolidated facilities while slashing payrolls.
Silicon Valley had about 30.15 million
square feet of commercial space suited for high-tech companies available for
rent in the fourth quarter of 2002, up 37 percent from 21.96 million square
feet of such vacant space in the first quarter of last year.
The region's vacant high-tech real estate was a low 3.1 million square feet in the third quarter of 2000 when Silicon
Valley's local economy was booming.
The unemployment rate in Santa Clara
County, the region's heart, was 7.8 percent in November, down from 8.1 percent
in the prior month but up substantially from 1.3 percent in December 2000 amid
the dot-com boom and torrid business investment in tech goods and services of
all kinds. - Reuters
2 January 2003
