Newcastle Partners Breaks Ground for Flex Project

SAN JOSE, CA-Newcastle Partners will break ground here any day now for Silver Creek Business Center, an eight-building development aimed at the area’s growing small business sector. The San Francisco-based real estate investment and development company plans to sell the buildings to users.The speculative 114,275-sf development will rise on 7.2 acres within Edenvale technology park, a master planned development that covers more than 2,000 acres. Newcastle’s project is located on Piercy Road, near the intersection of the 85 and 101 freeways. It will include buildings ranging from 11,500 sf to 17,900 sf. The price range is from just over $2 million to just over $3 million.Newcastle founder Dennis Higgs tells GlobeSt.com he is filling a void in the market by offering small, stand-alone industrial buildings for sale. “The bright spot in the Silicon Valley real estate market is the demand for smaller, quality buildings to meet the needs of the many entrepreneurs that are the heart of this economy,” Higgs says. “Entrepreneurs appreciate the opportunity to control their real estate costs and own their stand-alone building [and] Silver Creek Business Center is the only modern, class A space available in the market.”Higgs says he expects the buildings’ flexible design and abundant parking will appeal to a variety of potential users from office and R&D to light assembly or manufacturing. “We think the Silicon Valley recovery has begun and we may be the first out of the gate with this type of product,” he says. “We understand there is a lot of product planned and in the pipeline; once the success of this project hits the market, a lot will follow.”Cal National is financing the construction project. Ware Malcomb is the architect. Lusardi Construction of San Diego is the general contractor. The listing brokers are Chip Macdonald, Scott Horton and Scott Macdonald of Commercial Property Services.