Westcore Picks Up 14-Building R&D Portfolio for $105M

SAN FRANCISCO-Westcore Properties LLC of San Diego has acquired a 14-building Bay Area R&D portfolio from Chicago-based Equity Office Properties Trust for $105 million. The buildings, built between 1982 and 1996, are located in San Jose, Foster City and Redwood City. The portfolio totals 726,707 sf and is 83% leased. A Westcore representative tells GlobeSt.com that Longwing Real Estate Ventures was a partner with Westcore in the transaction.The properties acquired include:

• Vintage Park, a 162,000-sf, six building development in Foster City that includes five office/R&D buildings totaling 123,255 sf a 38,839-sf office building.
• Bayside Corporate Center, a two-building 84,925-sf development at 110 Marsh Drive & 100 Foster City Blvd.
• Shoreline Center, a 78,022-sf building at 150 Shoreline Dr. in Redwood City.
• Creekside Technology Center, a five building park at the intersection of Brokaw and the 880 Freeway in San Jose. The park totals about 400,000 sf, including 880 & 1001 Ridder Park in San Jose, a two-building 208,433-sf development, and 1730 & 1733 Fox Drive, a three-building complex totaling 193,233 sf.
• Westcore’s Northern California director of acquisitions Neil Johnson says Creekside offers both income from in-place leases and upside through potential rezoning, releasing, parcelization and individual building sales to users. The Foster City and Redwood City properties are ideally located to capitalize on the area’s burgeoning life science companies, he says.”This large acquisition is evidence that Westcore continues to be bullish in the Northern California market,” says Westcore chief executive Donald Ankeny. “We are optimistic on this region’s gradual recovery and feel comfortable about underwriting this opportunity as well as those in the future.” Bob Gilley, Steve Hermann, Erik Doyle and Bob Steinbock of CB Richard Ellis were the brokers in the deal. This transaction brings Westcore Properties’ total Northern California acquisition activity over the past nine months to about $256 million (1.91 milion sf) of office, R&D and industrial properties. The company hopes to acquire another $300 million of properties before the end of the year.Last month, the company acquired Sunnyvale Technology Center, an R&D/office-building property in Sunnyvale for $4.8 million. In May, Westcore Properties acquired a six-building R&D/ industrial business center in Fremont for $15.1 million. In April, it acquired for $78.6 million a 23-building, 613,358-sf R&D, light industrial and office portfolio in the cities of San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Fremont. In late 2004, the company paid $52.8 million for Vasona Technology Park, a seven-building office/R&D park totaling 307,000 sf in Campbell.