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Centex has sold approximately 8,500 residential lots and units to Farallon Capital Management, RSF Partners, and Greenfield Partners. Part of the sale, which came in at an effective $455 Million after factoring in tax refunds back to Centex, included the Plant51 project in San Jose. According to the Business Journal, Centex did not even sell a single unit in the 265-Unit historic rehab project after spending in excess of $100M over the course of the past four years developing the project. The project is still only 70% done.

The deal as structured still gives Centex a 5% stake as well as earnouts depending on the financial performance of the deal. The book value of the properties which were sold was in excess of $520M.

On a side note, something which I found pretty humorous was the home page of RSF Partners’ web site, where they indicate that they have “over $.5 billion in assets”. Normally people say $500 Million, or perhaps even “half a billion” under management, but this $.5 business just seems silly…were they hoping somebody wouldn’t see the decimal place?

The latest “big news” is that Brocade is in negotiations to lease the Phase I buildings of Hunter/Storm’s office project located at the SEC of 237 and First Street. The project entails 4 Class A office buildings totaling 880,000 SF, approximately 250,000 SF of retail, a hotel, a 25,000 SF health club, and a 168-key hotel.

The 36.6-Acre property was purchased by Hunter/Storm from Palm in Q3 of 2006 for $70,000,000 or $43.90 per square foot. The purchase and contract for the sale can be viewed here.

The first phase of the office development will entail about 436,000 SF of retail making it an ideal fit for Brocade, who occupies about 405,000 SF across several buildings located at the San Jose Airport. It’s leases for those spaces expire around Q2-Q3 of 2010. A warm shell is expected to be ready for tenant improvements in Q3 of 2009 making the deal attractive for Brocade from a timing perspective.

Originally the retail portion of the center was anchored by a Target. Those plans seem to have fallen apart, perhaps at the request of Brocade who likely is not to keen with such an intensive retail use, and would likely prefer a more lifestyle-centric retail component to the project.

If this deal happens it will likely be one of the larger deals to be concluded this year and will bring some reassurance to valley landlords, some of which who have gotten a bit nervous given the uncertainty in both the leasing and debt markets. Still though, this deal seems to indicate that Brocade is simply substituting space and not growing, and therefore likely to result in 400,000 SF of additional vacancy in the San Jose market.

KT Properties has acquired the property locatd at 1 South Market St in Downtown San Jose from Haury Properties. Plans for the site include high-rise condominiums but could be changed to office if the demand materializes. KT and its partners are currently developing the AXIS residential condo project located at Santa Clara and N Almaden Boulevard.

Haury originally had been holding the site for office development but later changed those plans into residential as the office market cooled.

The city seems to prefer that the 1 S Market site go office but it doesn’t make any sense at current rents Downtonw. Legacy is in the process of building the second tower at RiverPark on W San Carlos, and the BEA building is up in the air now that Oracle is acquiring them. In addition, Boston Properties and Barry Swenson control land downtown at a lower cost basis which could go office.

As part of their cost cutting plan, Hewlett Packard is reducing its footprint in Cupertino and Palo Alto by approximately 25%. In addition, HP has in the recent past been divesting some assets it owned in the South Bay cities of Cupertino and Mountain View.

The plan is to more efficiently use space and is not a result of layoffs. HP has bounced back in recent years under the leadership of Mark Hurd, who made it part of his plan to reduce real estate costs.

An SEC filing by NVIDIA has confirmed the purchase of approximately 475K SF of Office Space and land from Harvest Properties and Blackrock in Santa Clara by NVIDIA. We previously reported on the purchase back on February 15th.

The purchase of the park comes with a price tag of $150M, includes 25 acres, and 10 buildings on the property. It is being purchased by NVIDIA.

The newly named Legacy Hamilton Plaza, formerly just Hamilton Plaza is a two-building project near the intersection of Hamilton Avenue and Bascom Avenue in Campbell, California. Legacy acquired the project from the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System.

The two, six-story buildings located at 900-910 E Hamilton Avenue combine for a total of 355,000 square feet and include subterranean parking. The project is currently 80% leased. The projects leasing was previously was handled by Cornish and Carey but Legacy has made the switch to CPS.

The project benefits from easy freeway access and its vicinity to The Pruneyard Shopping Center. Legacy will undoubtedly be raising asking rents to the building.

NVIDIA is rumored to be buying San Tomas Business Park from Harvest Properties. The 10-Building project on San Tomas Expressway right across from NVIDIA’s campus was picked up by Harvest and BlackRock Realty in late 2005 for roughly $205 per square foot.

The project encompasses 10 buildings of roughly 47K SF each spread across 24 acres. There is no confirmation of the deal or whether additional land or buildings have been rolled into the deal or when the deal is slated to close.

This deal comes about a year after NVIDIA killed negotiations to acquire a Class A highrise in downtown San Jose from Sobrato that ultimately ended up getting acquired by BEA Systems.