Top 10 Green Office Buildings in the Bay Area

By Timea Papp

Home to tech giants such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, the Bay Area’s office market has been on a steady upward trend over the better part of this cycle. As sustainability is one of the most important aspects landlords keep in mind when acquiring an asset or when upgrading older ones, a property’s LEED certification ranks high on the list of features that it can offer.

Yardi Matrix lined up the top green office buildings by square footage in the Bay Area. Oakland, Calif., one of the region’s emerging tech hubs, is repeatedly mentioned, as half of the properties on our list are located in Alameda County.

10. San Antonio Station

Google’s 510,287-square-foot campus in Mountain View, Calif., is a LEED Platinum-certified office building originally constructed in 1966 as the Mayfield Mall. The property underwent a conversion process in 1986 and later earned LEED certification. Google initially leased San Antonio Station in 2013 and decided to acquire the property a few years later, shelling out $225.4 million for the asset in 2016.

9. 1221 City Center

Formerly known as the Clorox Building and located at 1221 Broadway in Oakland, Calif., the 24-story tower achieved LEED Platinum certification in 2010, under the ownership of The Clorox Co. Completed in 1976, the building underwent a series of upgrades after Westcore Properties acquired the asset in late 2012. Current owner UBS Realty Investors picked up the 519,980-square-foot property for $165.4 million in December 2015.

8. Lake Merritt Plaza

Located in the Lake Merritt/Uptown district of downtown Oakland, Calif., the 535,252-square-foot office building scored LEED Gold certification in 2009. The Class A tower stands 27 stories tall and boasts a notable roster including tenants such as Skanska, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Colliers International. Completed in 1985, it last changed hands in 2016, when Clarion Partners paid $224.8 million for the asset.

7. Eleven Eleven Broadway

The 552,100-square-foot office tower located at 1111 Broadway in Oakland, Calif., is LEED Gold certified and it has been part of Ellis Partners’ portfolio since 2013. The real estate investment company acquired the 24-story asset from CBRE Global Investors, paying $158 million or $286.18 per square foot. Eleven Eleven Broadway is leased to high-profile tenants including WeWork, Merrill Lynch, CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield.

6. Samsung Semiconductor Corporate Headquarters

Samsung’s Silicon Valley headquarters in San Jose, Calif., totals 679,223 square feet of Class A office space. The LEED Silver-certified building was completed in 2015 and boasts features—such as a central atrium and indoor sky pocket parks—meant to stimulate office collaboration. Additionally, the innovative property includes several ground-floor cafés open to the public as well.

5. Elihu M. Harris Building

Located at 1515 Clay St. in Oakland, Calif., the 700,589-square-foot high-rise was named for Elihu Harris, a former assemblyman and mayor of the city. Constructed in 1998, the building is located at the core of the Oakland Civic Center. The asset earned LEED certification in 2009. The property houses state office employees and is fully leased to government tenants State of California and DGS General Services.

4. Kaiser Center Tower

Rockpoint Group’s 792,000-square-foot property was constructed in 1960 and reached LEED Platinum certification in 2017. At the time of its completion, the 28-story Kaiser Center Tower was the tallest building in Oakland, Calif. Located at 300 Lakeside Drive, the T-shaped tower’s roster currently includes noteworthy companies such as the University of California, JP Morgan Chase, Kaiser Permanente and Bay Area Rapid Transit.

3. Oracle Santa Clara Campus

The 17-building complex totals 970,421 square feet and occupies 81 acres of land in Santa Clara, Calif. Completed in several phases between 1999 and 2016, the garden-style campus is LEED certified and boast a parking ratio of 2.5 spaces per 1,000 square feet, amounting to 2,426 parking spaces. Redwood City-based Oracle occupies the entire office park.

2. Chevron Park

The second-largest property on the list is Chevron’s 13-building campus built in the 1980s in San Ramon, Calif. The LEED Gold-certified complex consists of nearly 1.5 million square feet at 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road. Chevron consolidated its operations here in the early 2000s when the company sold its two Market Street buildings in San Francisco and relocated to San Ramon.

1. Bishop Ranch – 2600

Sunset Development Co. snagged Bishop Ranch – 2600 from AT&T in 2013, paying $250 million for the property. Boasting four interconnected buildings with more than 1.8 million square feet, the campus was awarded LEED Gold certification in 2015, following the completion of an expansive renovation program. AT&T is still a tenant at the property, along with other notable companies such as General Electric and SAP.

Images courtesy of Yardi Matrix & via Google Maps