Bay Area Office Sales Close to $1B in February

Office sales in the San Francisco-Peninsula market generated $299 million over the first two months of the year, according to CommercialEdge data. The average price per square foot was $934 as of February, a decrease of 13 percent month-over-month, but still far above the national average $284.

Office properties in San Francisco traded at a significant premium over other gateway markets during the first two months. Only Manhattan (at $1,885 per square foot) recorded a higher price. Prices in Los Angeles increased to $420 per square foot on average, while in Chicago ($144) they declined significantly below the national average.

Five properties traded in February across the Peninsula market, totaling roughly 243,000 square feet of office space. All properties that traded during the month were situated in suburban submarkets, mirroring construction and vacancy trends.

February’s largest transaction occurred in the Redwood Shores submarket—Rockpoint Group sold Shores Center for $82.8 million to an affiliate of Center Capital Partners. The three-building office property traded at $582 per square foot.

Bay Area sales close to $1 billion

Office property sales in the Bay Area—comprising the East and South Bay—market topped most other metros tracked by CommercialEdge. Year-to-date transactions totaled $918 million as of February, more than three times the amount recorded during the same period last year ($268 million). The average price per square foot for these sales was $591—15 percent higher year-over-year.

In February, eight properties traded across the Bay, all class B assets, totaling 710,000 square feet of office space. Two of these properties were acquired by an affiliate of South Bay Development in a $58 million transaction, in San Jose-Berryessa. Synaptics, which sold the property, will continue to occupy space at the 232,000-square-foot campus. The Milpitas ($60.5 million), Palo Alto ($53,9 million) and Berkeley–Central ($30.3 million) submarkets also recorded significant transactions in February.

CommercialEdge covers 8M+ property records in the United States. View the latest CommercialEdge national monthly office report here.