Optisolar Leases 60,000-SF Building for New HQ

SAN FRANCISCO-Optisolar, a privately-held thin-film solar technology company has leased a 60,300-sf stand-alone building in Hayward, CA, that will become its corporate headquarters. The five-year lease commences next month and is valued at just under $2 million.

The single-story flex building, at 31164-31172 Huntwood Ave., is located next to Optisolar’s current official address, 31302 Huntwood Ave., where it leases approximately 80,000 sf from Rreef. The company, which is reportedly considering an expansion of the Rreef leasehold as well, recently leased several hundred thousand square feet near Sacramento, where it plans to mass produce its technology. Estimates put the value of its lease with PNK LLC at approximately $0.53 per sf (NNN). One of the leasing brokers for both properties, Brady Thomas of Colliers International tells GlobeSt.com that Optisolar gets the building “as is” and along with some free rent and a small TI allowance. The deal is also good for PNK, which acquired the building in 2002. First, the investor will see no downtime in the building, which is currently fully leased by two tenants: a roofing company that just moved to Fremont and a subsidiary of PNK, which is leaving this month. Second, Optisolar is expected to invest as much as a few million dollars of its own money in the building, which it will utilize for office & R&D space. “If it weren’t for the solar companies there would be few deals of this magnitude getting done,” Thomas says. “They are the only companies growing; everyone else is buttoning up until they can figure out what’s going on with the economy.”Optisolar, founded in 2005 as Gen 3 Solar, has been using its Hayward space for administration, R&D and to manufacture scale models of its product. The Sacramento-area facility, located on a decommissioned Air Force base, will be its mass production facility. The company reportedly has options to expand its operation there to 1 million sf. Even at its current size, it is being touted as the largest planned thin-film solar plant in the nation.Colliers’ Greig Lagomarsino co-brokered the deal with Thomas. Bart Lammerson and Derek Johnson of Jones Lang LaSalle (now part of Staubach Co.) represent Optisolar in its lease negotiations.

Optisolar is one of several solar companies that took down space in the Bay Area this year. In June, Innovalight Inc., a maker of thin-film solar panel modules leased 35,537 sf of a 49,000-sf, two-story building within AMB Property Corp’s two-building, 85,454-sf Arques Business Park in Sunnyvale.