SANTA CLARA, CA-Qualcomm Inc. has acquired a 320,000-sf low-rise campus here that it will use to consolidate a couple of its expanding South Bay offices. The maker of cell phone computer chips paid $80 million for the 22-year-old, four-building complex known as Kifer Corporate Center. The seller, LBA Realty, acquired the campus empty in 2005 for approximately $46 million and proceeded to invest additional funds rehabilitating and repositioning the property.

For LBA, the sale was an opportunity to maximize its return on investment several years earlier than expected. For Qualcomm, it was an opportunity to own rather than to lease, which made more financial sense for the company.

Qualcomm's brokers, Bill Fleck, Bart Lammersen and Steve Clark of Staubach, examined approximately eight potential sites that could accommodate Qualcomm before zeroing in on Kifer Corporate Center. “When you look at the amount of investment Qualcomm would make beyond what the [tenant improvement] allowance [LBA] would have provided and the P&L benefits from owning instead of leasing, coupled with the company's strong cash position, there were compelling reasons to own rather than rent,” Lammersen tells GlobeSt.com.