Solyndra Takes 500,000-SF Former HP Facility

FREMONT, CA-Overton Moore Properties is successfully executing its strategy for 901 Page Ave., a 30-acre property here holding a 506,490–square-foot light manufacturing facility with significant office and lab space that it acquired in December for less than $20 million from Hewlett Packard, which leased the space back through May. The private Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm said Tuesday that it has found that full building user in Solyndra Inc. and signed the maker of solar power systems for commercial rooftops to a 12-year lease reportedly valued at more than $45 million. The agreement gives Solyndra the option to acquire the property for an undisclosed period of time during the lease term.

Solyndra Inc. designs and manufactures panels and mounting hardware for solar photovoltaic systems installed on commercial rooftops. The former HP facility, built in 1982, will be used as back-end support for the company’s new fabrication facility, which is under construction in Fremont thanks to a $535 million loan from the US Treasury and $198 million from a recent equity financing round led by Argonaut Private Equity. The company began construction in September. The facility is meant to help the company meet an order backlog totaling nearly $2 billion.

In January, local industry experts told GlobeSt.com that the space could be worth as much as $0.80 per square foot per month because with 90,000 square feet of mezzanine office space and lab space as well it was more than just a manufacturing facility, which rent for somewhere in the $0.50s per square foot, and wasn’t fully R&D space, which would rent for something in the $0.90s per square foot. However, given Overton More’s low cost basis and its want to lease the vacant facility, local sources tell GlobeSt.com it’s not surprising for the negotiated rent to be in the $0.60s per square foot. At $0.66 per square foot, the deal value would be approximately $48 million.