Mid-Point comprises 13 buildings fronting Highway 101 in Redwood City. San Francisco-based TMG acquired the 1960s-era former Ampex manufacturing and research site in 1995 an proceeded to renovate many of the existing buildings and obtain entitlements to build an additional 500,000 sf.
The entire campus was completed and fully leased to a variety of technology-related tenants by 1998. The following year, two of its largest tenants merged and became Excite@Home. During 2001's high-tech shakeout, Excite@Home filed bankruptcy, leaving 600,000 sf vacant.
Redwood City, hard hit by the technology collapse, has struggled with some of the highest urban office vacancy rates in the nation. Vacancy rates neared 50%, with sublease space accounting for more than one-third of the empty space at the start of the last quarter.
The average asking price in the San Mateo submarket was $2.53 full-service gross in the third quarter, down 10% from the previous quarter, according to a report by Burlingame-based BT Commercial. By the last quarter, San Mateo County¹s asking rate had fallen $0.70.
The average full-service asking rate in Redwood City is $2.60 per sf, with space lingering on the market for an average of 6 1/2 months, according to BT Commercial.
TMG will maintain all property management responsibilities, and will retain BT Commercial as its leasing agent.
"While the unexpected demise of Excite@Home left us with a major portion of the campus to lease, it is comforting to know that the rental rates at which we originally leased all one million sf are still comparable to today¹s market rents," says Michael Covarrubias, president and CEO of TMG.
"We have always been confident that TMG is the highest caliber developer group with whom to partner and to bring this prominent campus back to a fully leased position," adds James Fitzgerald, senior vice president of Credit Lyonnais U.S. real estate.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
