Prentiss Closes on 300,000-SF 3Com Campus

SANTA CLARA, CA-Prentiss Properties Trust is the new owner of 3Com’s former headquarters campus here. The Dallas-based REIT paid 3Com $34.8 million for three low-rise office buildings totaling 306,412 sf and adjacent land that can support another 230,000 sf of office development. Located on Great America Parkway adjacent to Highway 237, the low-rise buildings were built in 1999 and leased to 3Com for its headquarters. The three-year lease agreement included two five-year extension options and an option to purchase for $83.6 million. 3Com acquired the buildings in November 2001, according to public records. 3Com relocated its headquarters to Marlborough, MA, in 2003. Its Santa Clara property was fully vacated this past February. Prentiss has handed the leasing assignment for the buildings to the Palo Alto office of Cushman & Wakefield, which represented 3Com in the sale. The brokers involved are Brad Martin, James Allsup, Rich Hardy, and Frank Liantonio.Martin tells GlobeSt.com that the steel-frame buildings are being marketed for lease at $1.15 per sf per month, triple net. The rate assumes a five- to 10-year lease and includes a $5 per sf tenant improvement allowance. “We’ve been showing the property once a week to different tenants,” says Martin. “It’s pretty competitive out there.”However, Martin says that while there’s upward of 50 million sf of office and R&D space available for lease, there is significantly less that is truly class A space. “Vacancy is probably only 15% if you take out all of the class B and C product, and there are only a handful of campus-style locations available,” says Martin. “We’re very well positioned.”