(Mark Your Calendars: RealShare REAL ESTATE 2012, March 22nd in Los Angeles).
SAN RAMON, CA-Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has signed a 10-year, 250,000-square-foot lease agreement with Sunset Development, an investment builder and developer, for LEED Gold-certified office space in Bishop Ranch, a 585-acre business community that is home to more than 550 companies. Roughly 800 employees will move to the new location from Walnut Creek, Concord, San Francisco and Fresno.
“We’re bringing together teams whose work needs to be coordinated, and Bishop Ranch proved to be the best East Bay location that could accommodate a group of our size in one building,” says Nick Stavropoulos, EVP of gas operations for PG&E. “With engineers, emergency dispatchers, system operators and others working side by side, we expect big gains in communication, efficiency and team building.” Stavropoulous adds that PG&E was also drawn to Bishop Ranch because of its highly regarded transportation program and amenities for tenants.
The lease includes several options to extend the term for nearly 25 more years, through April 30, 2047. Most employees will move to Bishop Ranch by October of this year. According to Sabrina Hughes, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield, who brokered the deal, “The PG&E move to Bishop Ranch represents the largest commercial lease transaction in the East Bay this year. The utility is joining more than 35 other Fortune 500 companies at Bishop Ranch and is now the fourth-largest employer there, after AT&T, Chevron and Bank of the West.”
Ed Hagopian, EVP of Sunset Development, tells GlobeSt.com that vacancy is at 13% in the 10-million-square-foot business community of Bishop Ranch. He adds that part of what attracts businesses to the development is the “character and quality of the business community. We have over 600 companies who lease space from us—everything from a small-business-community cluster of 250 tenants to our legacy and high-tech companies. Good businesses like to cluster around other good businesses.” The area is also attractive due to the grade schools and parks nearby, he says.
The PG&E lease is the most recent transaction in a string of large leases Bishop Ranch has signed in the past couple of years including Robert Half and GE, Hagopian continues. Other businesses in the development include Chevron, the Coca-Cola Co., IBM and several major insurance companies.
The lease also falls in line with PG&E’s environmental-stewardship goals, since Bishop Ranch is Gold- certified by the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
“PG&E and Bishop Ranch share the same long-term vision for a clean energy future in California,” Hagopian says. “We are both committed to sustainability and green building. PG&E is an ideal tenant for us, and we look forward to collaborating with them as we expand our platform for environmental responsibility.
The new location is set to include a state-of-the-art gas control center, responsible for monitoring and adjusting gas pressures in PG&E’s vast network of pipelines 24 hours a day. The center, which is planned for completion in the second quarter of 2013, will have dual functions: overseeing both the large-transmission pipelines that deliver gas to populated areas and PG&E’s network of smaller distribution pipes that bring gas to customers’ homes and businesses. Gas dispatchers would work alongside control-center operators, creating what Stavropoulos calls “a unified first line of emergency response.”
The relocation project is among numerous PG&E initiatives to improve its gas operations. In the past year-and-a-half, the utility has hired new leadership, separated its gas and electric businesses, compiled and reviewed pipeline records and launched a far-reaching pipeline-testing and -replacement program.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
