PG&E Buys Downtown Oakland Headquarters for $1 Billion

Pacific Gas & Electric has completed a nearly billion-dollar buyout of its headquarters in downtown Oakland.

The utility giant laid out $985.5 million for a 28-story office tower and adjacent mixed-use building at 300 Lakeside Drive, The Mercury News reported. That includes $906 million for a parcel containing the tower and $79.5 million for the adjacent parcel with the office and retail building.

PG&E has been working to streamline its Bay Area holdings in recent years.

The corporation signed a 35-year deal with TMG Partners in 2020 to lease the 300 Lakeside tower with the option of buying it in the future. TMG bought the building in 2020 for $450 million before working out the agreement with PG&E. PG&E first announced its intent to purchase the property in 2023.

In 2021, PG&E sold its former 1.5-million-square-foot headquarters complex at 245 Market Street and 77 Beale Street in San Francisco for $800 million. It moved into the Lakeside Drive tower the following year.

PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe doubled down on the site, calling the Oakland headquarters “a critical hub for our operational and innovation progress” in a statement.

In addition to the 29-story tower, 300 Lakeside comes complete with a roughly 130,000-square-foot office and retail building as well as a parking garage with a rooftop garden.

The goal with the acquisition is to secure a more efficient operation in one place, with PG&E estimating it would save $400 million in the reshuffling. The Lakeside building is the home office for about 7,000 of PG&E’s 26,000 workers. By moving its Bay Area operations into one building, PG&E has slashed its Bay Area office space in half since 2020, the Mercury News reported.

The company has vowed to pass the savings along to customers over a five-year period, which would help tamp down any increases in monthly bills in that timeframe.

“We love being a part of the community in Oakland and look forward to our future in this vibrant city,” Poppe said. — Chris Malone Méndez