Google eyes big new North San Jose campus

SAN JOSE — Google is eyeing North San Jose’s Assembly at First tech development and is planning to lease a big chunk of space in the complex, according to several sources who are familiar with the Silicon Valley property market.

Assembly at First is an ambitious project that has sprouted as a wide-ranging redevelopment and reconstruction of an old Lam Research campus on North First Street between Headquarters Drive and Rose Orchard Way. Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm, is scouting for potential tenants for the project.

Mountain View-based Google is said to be in talks to lease as much as 800,000 to 900,000 square feet in Assembly at First, according to the real estate sources with knowledge of the transaction.

A spokesperson for Google declined to discuss the prospective leasing deal. Colliers didn’t talk about the transaction. Google is often represented in its property deals, both for leases and purchases, by CBRE, a commercial real estate firm. CBRE didn’t discuss the situation.

If the Assembly at First transaction is completed in the size range that has been reported by a number of knowledgeable sources, the deal could pave the way for Google to fashion its fourth major campus in San Jose alone.

In downtown San Jose, Google has proposed a transit-oriented community of office buildings, homes, restaurants, shops, hotel facilities, cultural amenities, entertainment sites, and open spaces where the search giant could employ 25,000. The development is being called Downtown West.

And Google has already claimed huge stakes in North San Jose.

Near Alviso, over a period of 18 months, Google paid $409.3 million through multiple property purchases that effectively have allowed the company to cobble together a vast campus of 1.27 million square feet. The eight properties consist of five office buildings and three giant industrial buildings. This mega-campus is north of the interchange of State Route 237 and North First Street. The buildings are on North First, Nortech Parkway, and Disk Drive.

A short distance from San Jose International Airport, near the corner of North First and Brokaw Road, Google has leased four buildings that together total 729,000 square feet from famed development firm Peery Arrillaga.

The most recent deal in the Assembly at First campus means Google would have three campuses fairly close to each other along North First Street. Google’s downtown development would be a few light rail stops away from the North San Jose job hubs.

ProspectHill Group, SKS Partners, and Invesco Real Estate are leading the redevelopment that has created Assembly at First. The campus would be developed in two phases.

Depending on the configuration of the 27-acre campus, as well as demand by tenants, Assembly at First has been approved to accommodate up to 1.3 million square feet of offices.

Share this: Print

View more on The Mercury News