The most iconic building in Oakland—the Tribune Tower, which was the tallest building in the city when they added the Venetian-style clock tower in 1923—is converting three floors into flex office space as part of a strategy to reinvent the 22-story building that was home of the Oakland Tribune.
Lee & Associates has announced a deal between Highbridge Equity Partners, which owns the tower, and Regus, a brand of Switzerland-based IWG, the largest global provider of flexible workspaces, to acquire tenants and manage flex space on floors six, seven and nine of the old newspaper building 409 13th Street in the center of Oakland.
Brokers Cody Kollmann and Jeff Moeller of Lee & Associates San Francisco and Joe McGlynn of Lee & Associates Oakland brokered the deal. Kollmann represented Regus while Moeller and McGlynn represented Highbridge.
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"IWG and Regus are looking for core markets that can offer spaces to occupiers that seek creative solutions to their workspaces. They're looking for good opportunities for space throughout the Bay Area," said Kollmann, a founding principal executive with Lee & Associates San Francisco, in a statement.
In what both companies are describing as a strategic partnership agreement, Regus will have the opportunity to have a total footprint of 40,000 SF of the 95K SF tower, SiliconValley reported.
Highbridge bought the Tribune Tower in 2019 from a joint venture of Harvest Properties and True North Management Group, which renovated the landmark.
Landing Regus as an anchor tenant is a major win for Highbridge, general partner Douglas Abrams said, noting that Regus works with industry giants including IBM and Accenture as well as McKinsey and several IT players.
Abrams said companies including PG&E, Kaiser, Clorox, Blue Shield of California, which all are located in downtown Oakland., frequently seek out consulting and information tech experts for an array of projects, SiliconValley reported.
"A project can be three months, nine months, a year or two years, and companies don't want to sign five-year leases if they don't need the space for that long," Abrams said.
The Highbridge exec also expects flex tenants to come from the startup community, creative companies and "individuals who want to get out of their homes after they have been working from home for three years."
The building owner is hoping Oakland's century-old icon can become the frontrunner for a flexible office revival of Oakland's office market.
Joseph Knowland, a former US Representative, acquired the Oakland Tribune in 1915, when it was operating in the old Golden West Hotel at the corner of Eighth and Franklin.
In 1918, the Breuner Furniture vacated its showroom and an adjacent warehouse and Knowland bought the property. The six-story building that housed the furniture showroom, built in 1906, became the base of the Tribune Tower; the warehouse—built in the 1890s on the site of the old Pantages Theater—became the Trib's pressroom.
In 1923, the clock tower was added. Architect Edward Foulkes designed the tower with a mix of French and Italian classical elements, topped with a copper green mansard roof with punched eye windows.
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