The commission approved the entire project last year, but due to the city's office development cap it could only give the company permission to build on three of the street corners. Sun Microsystems is leasing two of the buildings, including the 10-story, 330,000-sf structure just approved, which should be ready for occupancy late next year. Construction has already started at the southeast corner of the intersection, Sullivan says. Studios Architecture and Jennings Architecture designed the buildings. Plans call for all four facilities to be comprised of brick, stone and glass and be set back from the intersection to make room for a public plaza.

Under 1986's Proposition M, city officials can only allow 950,000 sf of new office space to be developed each year. After Wilson/Equity Office gets their share approved, and Catellus Development Corp. gets the go-ahead on the 195,000 sf approved in 1998, there will be little left to approve under the office development cap. To complicate matters, Catellus has upped their request from 195,000 sf to 475,000 sf.

Currently, Sun Microsystems occupies 260,000 sf in its Palo Alto headquarters, one million sf in Menlo Park, 700,000 sf in Newark--where its leasing another 1.1 million sf--and 630,000 sf in Santa Clara, where Sun has signed on to lease an additional 400,000 sf.