East Bay Community Energy expands offices in Oakland

The locally based nonprofit utility has leased 20,800 square feet in Lake Merritt Plaza at 1999 Harrison Street, taking up an entire floor, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed.

The utility, which has occupied 9,000 square feet at the plaza for four years, plans to move its headquarters to its new offices on the 23rd floor, according to its marketing director, Dan Lieberman.

“When the pandemic came, we were largely working remotely, and so having the small office wasn’t much of an issue — we just weren’t going in everyday,” Lieberman told the Business Times. “But during that time we staffed up, and now we’re at the point where we’re desk-sharing.”

The East Bay Community Energy deal is the second lease larger than 20,000 square feet in Oakland in the last few weeks — an exception to Oakland’s beleaguered office market, where office vacancy in Downtown Oakland, Uptown and Lake Merritt hit 35.7 percent in the second quarter.

Delta Dental of California has leased 25,000 square feet of new offices at 1333 Broadway in the largest local lease in a year.

Both are part of the professional services and nonprofit sectors that historically make up the city’s tenant base.

East Bay Community Energy will sublease its new offices at 1999 Harrison from Seattle-based games maker Big Fish Games through March 2025, three unidentified sources told the Business Times. The firm then added a direct lease with the building owner, California State Teachers Retirement System, extending its lease commitment to 2032.

Brokers David Labree and Scott Stone of Cresa represented Big Fish in the sublease deal. Brokers Joel Maimon and Ari Rokeach of Newmark represented the utility.

The California State Teachers Retirement System, or CALSTRS, bought the 532,000-square-foot office plaza in 2016 for $235.5 million. The deal included a smaller building at 1956 Webster Street.

— Dana Bartholomew