Amazon buys former Owens Corning plant in Santa Clara for $238M

Amazon.com has bought a former Owens Corning factory in Santa Clara for $237.8 million.

An affiliate of the Seattle-based e-commerce giant bought the 41.9-acre industrial complex used for more than 70 years by the maker of fiberglass, insulation and roofing products at 960 Central Expressway, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The seller in the all-cash deal to Amazon.com Services was Owens Corning Insulating Systems, an affiliate controlled by Owens Corning. 

It’s not immediately clear what Amazon wants to do with the property.

In August, Ohio-based Owens Corning appeared to have struck a deal to sell the plant to Irvine-based Panattoni Development for $240 million, according to a regulatory filing. 

Panattoni had plans to redevelop the site into nearly 900,000 square feet of warehouse or data center space, TRD had learned.

It appears that Owens Corning chose instead to sell the property to Amazon.

The former plant contains 747,400 square feet of industrial warehouse buildings and 130,000 square feet of covered truck loading docks and surface parking, according to city records.

Publicly traded Owens Corning decided to close the plant as part of a shift in manufacturing to less costly regions closer to its customers, it announced in 2021. The company had made insulation at 42 plants in 18 cities worldwide, including its former plant in Santa Clara, according to its annual report. It is now investing in plants in Utah and Arizona.

Early last year, Panattoni filed plans to demolish the Owens Corning buildings and replace them with three speculative buildings totaling up to 890,000 square feet, according to an application with the city. The buildings were to be used for warehousing and/or data centers.

The purchase by Amazon.com Services suggests that Amazon continues to craft plans for future expansion in Silicon Valley, even while the company trims some segments of its business, according to the Mercury News.

Amazon had previously announced plans in state WARN notices to cut 524 jobs in the Bay Area, including workers in Sunnyvale and San Francisco.

Last April, Amazon expanded its office presence in Santa Clara by 160,000 square feet, agreeing to rent an entire six-story building after taking a third of it in 2021.

— Dana Bartholomew