East Bay Office Group
Oakland Office Lease in Jack London Square
The continued redevelopment of Jack London Square in Oakland took another step forward recently when Sungevity signed a lease to take on office space at 66 Franklin St. The company currently leases a 6,000 square foot office in Berkeley and is now taking on another 20,000 square feet for its headquarters in Oakland. For more information on this office lease or information about office space for lease contact Dave at (510)903-7601 or Ben at (510)903-7606.
New Oakland Office Condos For Sale
Allied Paper Office Condos For Sale
Two new office condos have hit the Oakland office market in the popular Jack London Square area. We recently brought these two properties, located at 283 4th St, to the market at highly attractive prices. In fact with SBA rates at near all time lows a buyer can own these units with a payment lower than the rent would be for comparable office space in the Oakland market. The properties are located in the heart of Jack London Square and have a stylish lobby, intercom entry system, and elevator. They are less than 2 blocks from the soon to open and much heralded Jack London Market as well as multiple parking lots. There is easy BART, ferry, and freeway access.
Unit 2 is a 2,336 square foot space with high ceilings, great natural light, and open creative space. The asking price of $420,000 makes it the most attractively priced small office condo anywhere in Oakland. There is an existing partition wall that allows for a buyer to lease out approximately 1,000 square feet or remove the wall to create a great open creative space. Multiple windows allow for ample natural light.
Unit 4 is the full floor penthouse suite comprised of 6,973 square feet. This loft style unit has secure elevator access, a kitchen, server room, and large conference room. It also has 7 private offices, separate men’s and women’s restrooms, and great natural light with views.
Downtown Oakland View From Penthouse Unit
The asking price of $1,495,000 makes this a steal for an SBA buyer. At current SBA rates the monthly payment works out to $1.02 per square foot per month. That is cheaper than the rent would be on this suite. For more information please contact Dave at (510)903-7601.
New Office Leases at Oakland’s City Center
Three new offices leases have been recently completed at Oakland’s City Center Class A office project. TranSystems Corporation took 12,800 square feet on the 10th floor of 505 14th St for six years. Bechtel National Inc. signed up for 24,200 square feet on the 17th floor of 1111 Broadway for two years. Pacific Business Centers renewed their lease for 12,500 square feet at 1300 Clay St for an additional ten years. Even in this tough office leasing market City Center is able to maintain a low vacancy rate due to the quality of the office space and the prime location above the 12th St/City Center BART Station.
Jack London Square Real Estate Values Set To Climb?
In an effort to keep the A’s in Oakland, officials have identified four possible sites for a new A’s stadium. Two of the sites are in Jack London Square. If one of the Jack London sites is developed it will significantly impact the values of commercial properties just as San Francisco has seen around the Giants stadium. This is certainly a factor companies should consider when thinking of leasing or buying office space in the Oakland market.
Bank Failures Affect Commercial Real Estate
As the national residential real estate market starts its long march out of the current depressed state the disaster in the commercial real estate market is just beginning. Unfortunately this appears to be a long process.
Banks are hesitant to foreclose on commercial properties and when they do they are having a tough time valuing the assets. In our East Bay commercial real estate market, and certainly in the Oakland submarket, we are seeing banks and troubled sellers having to look at sales comps for office buildings that are 12 to 24 months old because those are the most recent comps. The big problem is that the market for Oakland office buildings has dropped significantly since those sales occurred and it is taking the banks quite a while to come to this realization which stalls the entire process.
Many banks are being taken over by the FDIC and their assets subsequently sold to other banks. Click the FDIC link to see an interesting article about how many banks have failed.
Ben and I have a client (Client X) whose case is an interesting demonstration of this phenomenon. Client X sold a commercial property to a developer who planned to build housing. This buyer missed the market for redevelopment and had the property taken back by the bank. Client X made an offer and was one of several suitors expecting to receive a counter offer from the bank. Before the counter offer could be made the FDIC shut down the bank and sold all of the assets to a second bank. Her we sit four months later still waiting on a response to the offer. This is hardly the only case we are seeing in the East Bay commercial real estate market. For more information regarding the state of the Oakland office market and the East Bay commercial real estate market please contact Dave McCarty (510)903-7601 or Ben Jones (510)903-7606.
Oakland Office Condo For Sale
How far have commercial real estate values fallen in the last year in the Oakland office market you might ask? The office condos at 428 Alice are an excellent case study.
In August of 2008 a 1,061 square foot office condo at 428 Alice in the popular Jack London Square area of Oakland sold for $235 per square foot. We currently have the listing on the remaining 2,119 square foot unit priced at $148 per square foot. This is a newly constructed office condo, built by Pulte, in a highly sought after area of Oakland.
We are fortunate that Pulte understands that it is better to beat the market down than to continue chasing it down. This is now the cheapest office condo in Oakland and we expect it to sell in a relatively short period of time due to the amount of interest already generated.
