Insights

Big Alameda Office Park is Bought by East Coast Investors

Marina Village office, research campus trades hands in mega-deal

ALAMEDA — The sprawling Marina Village office park in Alameda has been bought in a deal that experts say is an indicator that the East Bay office market west of the Oakland-Berkeley hills remains sturdy.

In multiple transactions, affiliates of a group led by DRA Advisors, a New York City-based private equity and real estate investment firm, bought the complex from a group led by Brookfield Office Properties, according to public documents filed on June 3 with Alameda County officials.

The DRA affiliates paid $266.9 million for Marina Village, a huge complex perched near the northern shore of Alameda a short distance from the Posey Webster underwater tubes.

“This is one of the highest prices paid for office space in Alameda,” said Edward Del Beccaro, an executive vice president and East Bay regional manager for real estate firm TRI Commercial.

At the same time the property traded hands, the DRA-led group also obtained a loan of $234 million from RBC Real Estate Capital.

“This is a very good acquisition,” said Don Birney, a broker with the Oakland office of Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm. “It’s very fully leased up now.”

Marina Village consists of 1.1 million square feet of office and research space that stands on 200 acres and includes 30 buildings, according to a property description authored by CBRE, a commercial real estate firm.

Tenants include Insite Vision, Alveo Technologies, Aqua Metals, RGB Spectrum, and Telecare.

The price suggests that East Bay commercial property owners continue to benefit from the expensive office rents in San Francisco.

Enough companies have been priced out of the San Francisco office market that they have increasingly begun to seek expansion areas in East Bay markets such as Oakland, Emeryville, and now, more recently, Alameda, brokers said.

“Alameda office rents have always lagged behind downtown Oakland, which always lags behind San Francisco,” Birney said. “But even though the rents are lower in Alameda, the area is still attractive with a lot of amenities, including the restaurants and waterfront.”

George Avalos 

George Avalos is a business reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Read the East Bay Times article here.