Tight Market Pushing Startup Across Bay

Squeezed for space in a tight Bay Area rental market, San Francisco-based Internet startup MimEcom.com has chosen to rent quarters in downtown Oakland.

The 200-employee firm, which coordinates and oversees all aspects of web sites, has signed a letter of intent to occupy 95,000 sf on the third and fourth floors of 1945 Broadway. The space is in addition to its four floors at 44 Montgomery St. in San Francisco.

If the lease is finalized, MimEcom will be the first commercial tenant at the six-story Oakland building, which is currently owned by the Sears department store. Sears occupies the building’s first and second levels.

Atlanta-based Songy Partners Ltd. purchased a 50-year leasehold on the building’s top four floors in June and is currently spending $20 million to renovate the space. Tenants are scheduled to move in by the beginning of 2001.

Both the third and fourth floors are 70,000 sf, while the fifth is 35,000 sf and the sixth is 25,000 sf. Annual rent for the building ranges between $21 and $40 per sf.