A local developer has filed plans to build a 450,000-square-foot office and research campus in Fremont.
Herman Christensen & Sons, based in Santa Clara, is seeking approval to build the five-building complex on 14.2 acres of land bounded by Ardenwood Boulevard, Commerce Drive and Paseo Padre Parkway in Ardenwood, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The land, which Herman Christensen has owned for more than three decades, is about a half-mile north of a cluster of other office and life science buildings in the Ardenwood district.
The nearby Ardenwood Technology Park has 3 million square feet of office space and includes such tenants as pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim, Neuralink, an Elon Musk-owned neurotechnology firm and Meta, which has leased more than 1 million square feet.
Herman Christensen bought 20 acres in the area for $2.08 million in 1991.
An affiliate bought 6200 Paseo Padre Parkway for nearly $3.6 million in 2010, which includes a 43,172-square-foot office and R&D building that serves as headquarters for Nextracker, a solar equipment supplier.
The new project, designed by San Jose-based Arc Tec, would include a renovation of the Nextracker building.
The developer is a long-term investor in Fremont’s Ardenwood district, said Donovan Lazaro, the city’s economic development manager.
“We’re really excited about the proposed project,” he said in an interview June 6. “It is aligned with the tenant demand we have seen for this district, and we know we are in short supply of these kinds of facilities.”
Fremont rezoned 150 acres of the Ardenwood district south of Herman Christensen’s property in 2016 aiming to draw more technology and life science tenants, according to the Business Times.
The rezoning, which made way for additional commercial square footage and the modernization of existing buildings, allowed developers to build higher density office projects.
[San Francisco Business Times] – Dana Bartholomew
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