This is Why We Have Been Loving Fremont So Long

Tesla rival Lucid Motors expanding in Newark.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/11/08/lucid-motors-growth-newark-hq-space-vs-tesla.html

Facebook is expanding further south into central Fremont area.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2019/01/11/facebook-lease-east-bay-overton-moore-morton-salt.html

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For people who can’t get past the paywall.

ok… not too hot here :slight_smile:

but this deal is unusual because it’s industrial space where the company plans to prepare food for its expanding Menlo Park headquarters, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Exclusive: Facebook inks big lease in East Bay to feed its growing workforce

Blanca TorresJan 11, 2019, 3:21pm PST

Timur Tecimer, CEO of Overton Moore.

Timur Tecimer, CEO of Overton Moore.

Todd Johnson | San Francisco Business Times

Facebook signed yet another large lease in the East Bay in an under-construction development in Newark.

The social media giant leased 225,679 square feet in the Morton Commerce Center, a 605,000-square-foot industrial park on the site of a former Morton Salt factory off of Central and Morton Avenues in Newark.

A rendering of the Morton Commerce Center, a four building, 605,000 square foot industrial project in Newark.

A rendering of the Morton Commerce Center, a four building, 605,000 square foot industrial project in Newark.

Overton Moore Properties

Facebook has leased more than 2.1 million of offices space in the Bay, but this deal is unusual because it’s industrial space where the company plans to prepare food for its expanding Menlo Park headquarters, according to sources familiar with the deal.

“Facebook is excited to join the community in Newark," said Kyle Gerstenschlager, a spokesperson for Facebook. "We’re committed to being a good neighbor and having a positive impact here. We will start on day one by bringing new jobs and opportunities to the city.”

“This is a very unique situation in which Facebook has an approach of creating a village atmosphere to provide for the needs of their employees,” said Terrence Grindall, Newark’s economic development director. “It shows how centrally located Newark is.”

During non-peak times, it’s a 12-minute drive from Newark and Facebook’s Menlo Park base, he said. This is Facebook’s first foray into Newark, but the company has shown interest in leasing other properties. Facebook has also taken a lead in efforts to add a light rail line over the Dumbarton Bridge that connects Menlo Park to the East Bay.

City officials worked closely with the developer of the project, Los Angeles-based Overton Moore Properties, to entitle the project in less than six months so construction could start late last year. Facebook was already in the wings as a possible tenant when Overton proposed the project, Grindall said.

Facebook will occupy one of four buildings in the Morton Commerce Center that will be complete in July. The rest of the project will wrap up construction by September. Grindall said the entire development is expected to accommodate about 600 workers.

Timur Tecimer, CEO of Overton, declined to disclose the name of the anchor tenant of its Newark development, but did say that many technology companies are looking at industrial space in Newark, Fremont and Milpitas areas.

Technology companies based in Silicon Valley don’t have a lot of options for industrial space close to their headquarters, so they have to “migrate over the Dumbarton Bridge,” he said.

Overton Moore bought 29 acres from Morton Salt in December of 2017 for more than $30 million. The company is also building the 1.7 million-square-foot Pacific Commons South in Fremont. The firm previous built the 700,000-square-foot Crossings @ 880 in Fremont and 300,000-square-foot Gateway Marina in San Leandro, which are both fully leased.

“Morton Commerce Center is a next generation manufacturing/industrial project that will stand out from the aging existing building stock,” said John McManus, a Cushman & Wakefield broker who is handling leasing for Overton, in a statement. “The first lease at the project is a great example of how the project fits the market.”

Technology tenants are often looking for advanced manufacturing spaces to assembly products. Last year, Apple Inc. leased up nearly 314,000 square feet of industrial manufacturing space at McCarthy Creekside, a new development in Milpitas.

Demand for Bay Area industrial space is coming from three growing sectors: ecommerce and consumer goods companies, technology companies and food, either for production or distribution, said Kevin Hatcher, an Oakland-based industrial broker with CBRE who was not involved in the Facebook lease.

“As tech companies grow their footprints in the Bay Area, there are ancillary needs for industrial space,” Hatcher said.

Rents for warehouse and manufacturing space doubled in the past four years, he said, and developers are building millions square feet of new space. Many projects might start without tenants, but tend to lease up quickly.

“It’s easier for many tenants to lease a new building with upgraded infrastructure and build it out to fit their uses,” Hatcher said.

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See, that stretch (Union City, Newark and Fremont) was bound to be found…

A homeowner in Fremont said thieves yanked all four wheels from his brand new car right from his driveway. It happened Monday morning on Margery Drive in the Irvington District after the homeowner left to go to work.

He believes the theft happened between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. and suspects the thieves watched him leave. He said the tires they took are Honda stock tires. He estimates the set is worth $2,000.

In the recent years, companies/people are moving to East Bay, and we can see the momentum everyday.

Fremont is getting more packed as well, and companies are expanding to the North of it – Newark, Union City, Hayward, etc. (nice bay weather.)

I passed-by these cities every week. Each time I see new businesses, restaurants, home constructions like never before.

I also keep contacts with city officials, and these cities have a lot of big developments (commercial, residents, parks, etc.) in the pipeline.

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Is having a Bart station say 5-10m away a net plus or minus for property value?

@manch
@netaxcat

10m or more I don’t think it will do anything. 2-5m maybe the sweet spot. Any closer is a minus.

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Go go go! A few more ppl I met recently are happy of their teams moving to Fremont!

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This is reply for BART related posting. People are generally OK to walk 500 meters (0.3 miles) to get to a rail based transport system. Up to 1 KM may be acceptable to some. But, it becomes an overhead farther out. You will need someone to drop/pickup from station everyday.

FB teams already moving to Fremont? How many people are working in Fremont now?

Started happening mid this year, at least 2 buildings are fully operational with all amenities. But majority of buildings 10+ are coming online in 2020-2021.

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Gold rush time? :running_man:

Great news guys…

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2020/04/27/facebook-fremont-lease-peery-arrillaga-ardenwood.html

Behind a Paywall so pasting below. After cross referencing older news items, these new 2 buildings are the ones that Tesla was leasing before there were layoffs.

Exclusive: Facebook leases more space in Fremont

Matthew NiksaApr 27, 2020, 3:37pm PDT

Social media company Facebook Inc. has agreed to lease two buildings in Fremont located across the street from a so-called “book-end” campus intended to complement its Menlo Park headquarters, a company spokesperson confirmed to the Silicon Valley Business Journal on Monday.

Facebook leased two buildings at 6800 and 6900 Dumbarton Circle, company spokesperson Chloe Meyere said in a Monday email.

The pair of two-story office and R&D buildings, totaling 229,530 square feet, are owned by Palo Alto-based development firm Peery Arrillaga and were previously occupied by electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. The deal was the largest R&D transaction in Silicon Valley in the first quarter, according to a Q1 report by commercial real estate firm CBRE.

“To hear that Facebook is expanding its presence in Fremont is wonderful news and the City stands ready to support this growth,” said Christina Briggs, Fremont’s deputy city manager and economic development director, in a Monday email statement.

Facebook directly leased 6800 and 6900 Dumbarton Circle with Peery Arrillaga in a deal that closed Feb. 18, Meyere said. “Our current and planned footprint in Fremont represents our continued investment in the Bay Area, our commitment to broadening opportunity for neighbors, and our focus on reducing traffic,” she said, adding that Facebook plans to finish moving into the two buildings by 2021. They combined would be able to accommodate 1,147 employees, according to commonly-accepted square-foot per employee benchmarks for office buildings.

The buildings were a previously vacant sublease on the market by Tesla, which leased them in 2017, and are located just off the Dumbarton Bridge in Fremont’s Ardenwood district. The Ardenwood area is an established business park that was once mostly home to biotech firms but is now drawing tech companies from Silicon Valley.

If there’s a development firm with a keen understanding of Facebook’s growth needs, it’s Peery Arrillaga. Facebook in 2018 leased 14 buildings totaling about 750,000 square feet in the Ardenwood district from Peery Arrillaga to create a book-end campus that would complement its Menlo Park headquarters.

The longtime development company declined to comment for this story.

Facebook also has about 300,000 square feet in the Ardenwood area from the Sobrato Organization, John Tenanes, the company’s vice president of global facilities and real estate, said in 2018. The Sobrato-owned space is divided between two buildings at 6530 Paseo Padre Parkway and 6422 Commerce Drive that are about a mile north from the 14 buildings Facebook leased.

Facebook’s long-term growth strategy is to have enough space ready where and when the company needs it, Tenanes said. The tech giant has reportedly invested in efforts to improve transportation along the Dumbarton corridor, which would make it easier for its employees to go between its Menlo Park headquarters to East Bay cities such as Fremont and Newark.

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FB will continue growing in Fremont. Makes total sense in terms of cost. Fremont vs MPK campus are closer than say Google MTV and their Sunnyvale hub are. Question is will it attract others? That would put Fremont into rocket ship.

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