Office purchase brings Alexandria’s Palo Alto portfolio value to more than $1B

The firm plans to redevelop the Stanford Research Park properties into life sciences buildings

Purchase of offices brings Alexandria’s Palo Alto portfolio value to more than $1B (CBRE)
Purchase of offices brings Alexandria’s Palo Alto portfolio value to more than $1B (CBRE)

Is it a unicorn yet? The purchase of a four-building office complex has brought the value of a veteran real estate firm’s Palo Alto portfolio to more than $1 billion.

Pasadena-based Alexandria Real Estate bought the buildings at 3301 to 3307 Hillview Avenue for $446 million through an affiliate. The most recent transaction brings the company’s total spent on properties in Palo Alto since January 2018 to at least $1.37 billion, SiliconValley.com reported.

The buildings, which are located in the Stanford Research Park, total about 292,000 square feet. Alexandria bought a ground lease for the properties as Stanford University retains ownership of the land beneath the buildings in the South Bay tech campus.

Alexandria paid $267.6 million to acquire the properties and an additional $178.4 million for the ground lease.

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The office complex is leased to software firm TIBCO through 2027, but currently unoccupied and available for sublease.

Alexandria, which specializes in life sciences properties, has preliminary plans to redevelop the buildings into office and lab space to take advantage of the current surge in leasing by biotech, life sciences and medical device companies.

The firm also bought the properties at 3420 and 3440 Hillview Avenue in the same office complex. Alexandria plans to redevelop it into a two-building complex that spans 185,228 square feet. The firm also owns the two office properties next door at 3450 and 3460 Hillview. Alexandria bought the assets, which sit on a 7.4-acre lot, for $40.5 million last year. The firm closed on 3420 and 3440 Hillview Avenue on Oct. 5.

A few months ago, Alexandria also paid $21 million to acquire part of a Millbrae site where the firm has proposed an approximately 578,000-square-foot life science project. The project calls for a four-building complex that would contain lab, office and amenity space.

[SV] — Victoria Pruitt