San Jose Sharks Buy Google Offices Near Arena

The San Jose Sharks are circling the area around their SAP Center home.

The NHL team purchased an office building across the street from the SAP Center at 450 West Santa Clara Street for an undisclosed amount, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. The Sharks acquired the building from Google, which purchased the property in 2019 and owns neighboring parcels as well as its stalled Downtown West development project nearby.

The Sharks made the acquisition as the SAP Center prepares for a $425 million renovation effort. With the new deal, the offices in the stadium will become locker rooms for the Sharks and visiting teams, while the Sharks’ corporate operations will largely relocate into the newly purchased building on Santa Clara Street.

The Sharks plan to move team operations into the Santa Clara Street building by the end of this year, a spokesperson for the team told the Business Journal. Some employees will remain at the SAP Center in a different office space after the transition. In total, Sharks Sports & Entertainment has roughly 350 full-time employees, with many of them housed in the current underground digs at the arena.

The 450 West Santa Clara Street building was built in 1999 and totals approximately 22,000 square feet. The team had considered various options for offices across downtown San Jose but ultimately opted for the Santa Clara Street building because of its “ideal location” across the street from the SAP Center, the spokesperson told the Business Journal.

The Sharks’ purchase is the latest venue-adjacent sale in the heart of San Jose over the past year. Last fall, the City of San Jose purchased a 3.6-acre parcel across the street from the San Jose Convention Center at 447 South Almaden Boulevard for $13.5 million. The city is considering a bevy of options to transform the surface parking lot, including a convention center expansion or other sports and entertainment district uses such as a flagship hotel, retail, restaurants and cultural venues. That deal came after the city signed an agreement with San Jose Sharks to keep the team in the city until 2051 and to renovate the SAP Center.

— Chris Malone Méndez