Stanford Acquires 759-Unit Multifamily in Palo Alto

Stanford University has acquired the Oak Creek Apartments, a 759-unit complex adjacent to the 700-acre Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, in transactions including the ground lease and a loan for the property.

The university, acting through an affiliate, reacquired the ground lease on the property and took over a $125M loan from sellers San Francisco-based Marena Properties and Woodside-based Pivnicka Properties.

The two companies acquired the multifamily campus, which includes several three-story apartment buildings, in 2015. Terms for Stanford’s acquisition of the ground lease were not disclosed.

The Oak Creek campus is located at 1600 Sand Hill Road, across the street from the university’s athletics training fields, including a training complex for the varsity golf team.

“The current apartment operator lessee decided to sell its leasehold and Stanford took the unexpected opportunity to have an affiliate acquire the leasehold in order to increase the supply of academic housing on an accelerated timeframe,” Joel Berman, a spokesperson for Stanford said, as reported by SiliconValley.com.

Stanford owns more than 700 acres in Palo Alto, including the 10M SF Stanford Research Park. The university leases land under buildings owned by tech companies and real estate investors in or near the research park.

The Oak Creek campus is the second large apartment complex that Stanford has acquired in the area in recent years. In 2017, the university bought a 167-unit multifamily with ground-floor retail at 4740 El Camino Real in Los Altos for $131M.

Real estate developers have initiated several student housing projects in NoCal this year as universities seek to expand their dormitory space.

In August, a Rhode Island-based developer filed plan to convert a landmark Berkeley movie palace that opened in 1914 into the centerpiece of a 15-story mixed use project that will include new student housing for the UC Berkeley campus.

Gilbane, based in Providence, is planning to incorporate the art deco façade, marquee and a live theater stage from the famous California Theatre into its new building, which will include 214 multifamily units.

The shuttered film palace, located at 2113 Kittredge Street within walking distance of the UC Berkeley campus, will become part of a facility that will provide student housing with 22 units reserved as affordable for tenants with incomes 30% to 50% of median income in the area.

Known to locals as The Cal, the theater was closed during the pandemic lockdown in March 2020 and never reopened. In January, a group of Berkeley residents petitioned the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission to bestow landmark status on The Cal to prevent its redevelopment.

In a nod to the student housing crunch in Berkeley, the commission decided In May to limit the landmark designation to the building’s façade and marquee, clearing the way for the mixed-use project.