Hill Physicians Take 85,000 SF at Bishop Ranch

Located at Norris Canyon and Camino Ramon, Bishop Ranch 9 is a four-story, 95,000-sf office building. It is one of 40 buildings in the park totaling 4.5 million sf that are owned by Sunset Development Co.

The asking rate for office space in Sunset's Bishop Ranch ranges from $27 to $30 per sf per year. Hagopian declined to specify the negotiated lease rate for Hill Physicians but would say that the company signed a "long-term" lease, which means it is in excess of five years.

The Hill Physicians lease takes total leasing activity at park in the past 90 days to approximately 400,000 sf and drops vacancy below 10%, Sunset Development SVP Ed Hagopian tells GlobeSt.com.

Other new leases for Sunset's 4.5 million-sf portfolio with Bishop Ranch in recent months include Robert Half International (234,000 SF), which will occupy the space in 2010; Del Monte Corporation (20,000 SF), Chubb Insurance (24,000 SF), University of California, Davis (10,000 SF) and Edgewood Partners Insurance (23,000 SF).

The lack of availability has Sunset preparing to break ground next year for approximately 700,000 sf of office space in three six-story, 230,000-sf buildings. Shortly thereafter, it plans to break ground for a 650,000 sf retail center that will sit next to the office buildings. The overall project is called City Center and also will include a new City Hall for San Ramon and a new public library.

"It's fully entitled and we're moving forward with plans," Hagopian says. "The office component will start in Q1 2009 and the retail component will follow shortly thereafter."

All told, about 30,000 people work at 500 different companies within Bishop Ranch. One of the largest tenants is Chevron, which occupies some two million sf. Other major users include Centex, Lennar Homes, TBM, Comcast and AT&T, which keeps its regional headquarters at Bishop Ranch.