Agreement Imminent on 2M-SF Campus Sale

The eight-building campus at State Highway 249 and Louetta Road on the far northwest side came into Hewlett-Packard's possession when the Palo Alto, CA company acquired Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002. Stewart Robinson of locally based Hines Interests LP and Ken Gilbert of Liberty-Greenfield Real Estate Advisors in northern California brought the campus to market on behalf of Hewlett-Packard in early 2008.

Though the offering is unpriced, replacement costs have been estimated at well above $500 million. In addition to office buildings, the campus includes a cafeteria, a fitness center and 20 acres of undeveloped land.

Transwestern senior vice president David Lee, who is uninvolved with the transaction, tells GlobeSt.com the campus' sale will be welcome in the far northwest market. "Those buildings are empty," he comments. "With a sale, we'd remove a huge negative of vacant buildings from the submarket and turn it into a positive."

According to the most recent figures from Transwestern, the overall northwest submarket's vacancy rate in the office sector is 17.6%, out of a 13.6 million-square-foot inventory. Lee, who markets the 650,000-square-foot Chasewood Technology Park at 20405 State Highway 249 next door to the campus adds that an HP campus sale would be a definite engine for growth in the area.

Hewlett-Packard has been selling parts of the Compaq Computer campus during the past several years as part of an overall consolidation plan. The company sold a four building complex on 44 acres in mid-2007 to Macfarlan Capital Partners and Buchanan Street Partners for north of $100 million.