With Office Market Softening, Some Landlords Mull Reducing Asking Rents

June 2, 2008

Tweet After seeing rents continuously rise over the past 24 to 36 months, Tenants are finally beginning to see an easing in rental rates. During the past two quarters, net absorption in the South Bay and Peninsula markets have either been flat or mildly negative. In the Silicon Valley, depending on whose numbers you use, [...]

Janitor Strike Over; New Contract Ratified

May 29, 2008

Tweet Bay Area janitors, who first went on strike May 20th have approved a new contract. The contract increases their wages by $2.40 per hour over the next four years, which represents a 22% increase. The janitors who walked off the job are responsible for cleaning approximately 80 percent of the commercial real estate in [...]

Startups Today, VC’s Tomorrow

April 10, 2008

Tweet We’re starting to see more reports of the credit crunch infecting Silicon Valley make the mainstreem press. IHT came out with an article the other day discussing how startups in Silicon Valley are beginning to feel the crunch. For the most part, landlords and brokers have remained fairly bullish on the prospects of Silicon Valley with [...]

Weakness in Rents Beginning to Show

March 17, 2008

Tweet Over the past 24 months, rental rates in the Silicon Valley, the Peninsula, and San Francisco have all seen a dramatic increases. Rental rates in some buildings have jumped nearly 75% over the past 24 months thanks to aggressive new owners looking to benefit from increased demand. During the past two quarters however, that [...]

Short Term Rates Down, Long Term Rates Up, Economy Down

March 17, 2008

Tweet The Fed’s recent actions to help stabilize economic conditions are not impressing foreigner’s holding US debt instruments. The inflationary actions of the Fed have resulted in foreign buyers of US debt to essentially boycott government auctions for treasuries. Over the past eight weeks, the share of foreign buyers participating in these auctions was somewhere [...]

Fresh & Easy Stores Sales Well Below Expectations

March 17, 2008

Tweet Fresh & Easy, the grocery store concept by british-based Tesco who has been on an aggressive expansion plan in Southern California and soon to be Northern California reported sales numbers well below the $100M estimate over six-months. Turns out that sales only came in at $30M. The poor performance comes at a time when the [...]

Silicon Valley Chapter of NAIOP Broker Luncheon

January 31, 2008

Tweet I attended a broker luncheon of NAIOP’s (National Association of Industrial and Office Properties) Silicon Valley chapter today. The panel was comprised of three brokers, two brokers who spend a majority of their time representing landlords, and one who is a predominately tenant representative. There seemed to be some concern in the air about the [...]

S&P’s First Week Performance Worrisome

January 4, 2008

Tweet If the performance of the S&P Index during the first week of January is right again this year, the markets and the economy may be facing a bumpy ride ahead. Below is the performance of the S&P 500 index over the last ten years; and 2008 has had the worst showing in a decade. [...]

Silicon Valley Architecture – Do You Have Any Favorites?

November 26, 2007

Tweet Scott Herhold, a writer for the San Jose Mercury News wrote an article for Sunday’s paper outlining some of his favorite contemporary architecture in Silicon Valley. His list included: Plaza De Cesar Chavez, Downtown San Jose Stephen Schott Stadium, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara San Jose Marriott Hotel, Downtown San Jose Central Park Library, [...]

Rising Rents Allowing Tenant’s To Exit Leases

November 7, 2007

Tweet The local economy has been moving along just fine. Large amounts of venture capital flowing into startups and continuing growth by local companies such as Apple, Google, Cisco, and VMWare have been contributing factors to the rapidly increasing rental rates for office space in Silicon Valley. As company’s grow they might find that their growth plans [...]