$3 billion, 3 weeks: Investors gobble up choice Bay Area office buildings amid coronavirus

SAN JOSE — Real estate investors have embarked on a remarkable buying binge for Bay Area office buildings in recent weeks and have amassed a shopping basket of choice commercial properties whose combined value tops a head-spinning $3 billion.

Office towers in downtown Oakland, San Francisco, and South San Francisco, along with a new mixed-use campus in north San Jose, as well as office buildings in Silicon Valley, are among the high-profile properties that investors bought over a three-week stretch that began on Oct. 15.

The dramatic buying activity suggests that real estate investors have yet to slake their thirst for top-notch Bay Area properties with well-heeled tenants or for sites that have plenty of redevelopment potential.

All told, investors have paid at least $3.13 billion for office properties in the Bay Area in just under three weeks, according to this news organization’s survey of some high-profile transactions in four key markets in the region.

The largest single transaction known to have occurred in the Bay Area in recent weeks was the billion-dollar purchase of an office campus of towers and other buildings in South San Francisco.

The most recent major transaction was a deal on Nov. 2 whereby a major investor bought three buildings in a north San Jose mixed-use center.

Among the major office purchases over the approximately three weeks starting on Oct. 15:

— $1 billion for the Genesis campus of two office towers, a smaller office building, and an amenities building in South San Francisco near Oyster Point.

— $650 million for the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco’s Financial District.

— $450 million for a mixed-use complex at 300 Lakeside Drive in downtown Oakland that includes an office tower that will be the future headquarters for PG&E.

— $346 million for a 10-building office campus on Results Way in Cupertino, a complex that is leased to tech titan Apple.

— $275 million for two office buildings, an amenities building, and a parking garage in north San Jose’s Coleman Highline mixed-use complex on Coleman Avenue near the city’s international airport.

Over the three weeks, investors were particularly busy in Silicon Valley, paying a combined total of at least $1.03 billion for large office buildings and campuses in Santa Clara County.