SAN JOSE, CALIF. — Global private investor KKR has purchased HQ @ First, an office campus in Silicon Valley totaling 603,666 square feet. Mori Trust Co. Ltd., a real estate development firm based in Japan, sold the campus to KKR for $535 million, according to several media outlets.
The LEED Gold-certified property was fully leased at the time of sale to data memory and storage manufacturer Micron Technologies and IT securities firm Zscaler. The campus is located at 110, 120, 130 Holger Way in San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley’s “Golden Triangle,” which is home to globally renowned tech firms such as Cisco Systems, Adobe, PayPal and eBay.
Steven Golubchik, Edmund Najera, Jonathan Schaefler and Darren Hollak of Newmark brokered the transaction. KKR purchased HQ @ First via its KKR Real Estate Select Trust fund and selected San Francisco-based Drawbridge Realty to manage the office campus.
“HQ @ First is a marquee property with great amenities, including onsite lab facilities, and access to Silicon Valley’s immense pool of talent,” says Justin Pattner, partner and head of real estate equity in the Americas at KKR. “We believe well-located trophy assets that can deliver a dynamic work environment for innovative growth companies will have significant staying power and long-term value.”
HQ & First features a two-story lobby, conference rooms, a fitness center, 1,600-space parking garage and a cafeteria offering more than 300 seats. The buildings recently underwent capital improvements, including modern office finishes with both open and personal desk areas, in addition to over 60,000 square feet of lab space.
The campus is situated on approximately 10 acres at the intersection of Highway 237 and North First Street. It is adjacent to multiple VTA Light Rail stations that connect to Caltrain, AMTRAK, ACE Train and BART. The property is also adjacent to @first, a Target-anchored shopping center that also houses Chase Bank, Chick-fil-A, CVS, El Camino Health, Panera Bread and Tesla.
The property was built in 2010 as a headquarters campus for Brocade Communications, which merged with computer chipmaker Broadcom in 2016. Brocade sold the campus in 2017 to locally based Lane Partners, which sold the property to Mori Trust in 2019.
Based in New York, KKR has acquired more than $4 billion of properties on the West Coast over the last 24 months, including HQ @ First. The firm has grown its real estate assets under management to approximately $28 billion across the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific as of March 31, 2021.
— John Nelson