Bay Area Campus Leased to Uber Fetches $193M

Drawbridge Realty has paid $193M to acquire a Sunnyvale office campus leased to ride-sharing giant Uber.

JPMorgan, which has owned the 157K SF office building at 200 S. Mathilda Ave. in Sunnyvale for the past seven years, sold the building in a transaction in which Eastdil Secured acted on behalf of the seller, who paid $135M for property in 2015.

The five-story glass-and-masonry sheathed building is fully occupied by Uber. Floorplates in the building range between about 28K SF and 36K SF in the building, which also boasts three passenger elevators.

The building is located in Sunnyvale’s Heritage District across the street from the Caltrain station of West Evelyn Ave.

Office campuses linked to major tech companies have been a hot commodity in Sunnyvale in recent weeks.

Union Investment, a fund based in Germany, has purchased a Silicon Valley office campus—leased to LinkedIn—for $222M, which translates into about $1,140/SF.

The four-story office building and adjacent parking garage included in the deal are located at 684 West Maude Ave., next door to LinkedIn’s Sunnyvale headquarters. Metzler Real Estate, based in Seattle, advised Union in the acquisition.

Union said in a press release that the purchase was made through its Unilmmo: Europa real estate fund. The German company previously acquired a 62K SF office building in nearby Menlo Park.

The deal caps a bountiful return for sellers Harvest Properties and Invesco Real Estate, which purchased and developed the Sunnyvale office campus and three adjacent office and research buildings in 2019 for $165M.

The partners sold two of the properties to LinkedIn last year for about $123M and the other to Apple last month for $47M, bringing the total haul for the Silicon Valley portfolio to nearly $230M. Eastdil Secured advised the joint venture in the West Maude building deal.

LinkedIn signed a 15-year lease on the office and garage on West Maude at the end of last year. According to an offering memo from Eastdil, the rental agreement is guaranteed by LinkedIn parent Microsoft and includes options to extend the term for up to 14 years.

In June, Apple signed a lease for a newly built office campus in Sunnyvale, CA, bringing the tech giant’s footprint in the city to more than 800K SF.

Apple’s lease secures both buildings of developer and owner Jay Paul Co.’s new Mathilda Commons office complex, which features two four-story Class A buildings encompassing 382,500 SF.

Apple occupies two other buildings, owned by Kilroy Realty and totaling about 425,000 SF in Sunnyvale, also on North Matilda Ave. The Kilroy buildings and the new Mathilda Commons complex are about eight miles from Apple’s new HQ in Cupertino, CA.

Jay Paul began the Mathilda Commons project in 2019 with a $150M construction loan from US Bank. Construction work was finished last September. The office campus boasts 15-foot floor heights, a 15,377 SF fitness center, a 9.704 SF rooftop terrace and a four-story parking structure.

The new office park also offers an amenity package with health and wellness features including MERV 15 air filters and touchless entries and access.