Reports of 10 offers for some or all buildings; $5 million to $7 million
San Jose-based telecommunications equipment developer Cisco Systems is marketing its five Petaluma buildings for sale after shutting down local operations this summer.
The buildings – 1435, 1440 and 1450 N. McDowell Blvd., 1380 Redwood Way and 5350 Old Redwood Highway – are being marketed as a portfolio by a San Francisco-based Jones Lang LaSalle team led by Michel Seifer and Cushman & Wakefield in San Rafael.
The listed square footage is about 170,000 square feet.
Real estate sources indicate there have been as many as 10 offers on all or some of the buildings, including interest from local investors or companies. Market experts predict the property will sell for $5 million to $7 million.
Another source suggested that Cisco could wait for the market to improve to achieve a better sale price.
Cisco purchased the buildings from Basin Street Properties in 2005 for about $30 million. The company became an early player in the cluster of companies known as Telecom Valley in 1999 when it purchased Petaluma startups Cerent Corp. and Fibex Systems for $7.3 billion.
One source speculated that the buyer or buyers likely will be local because they will need to understand the long-term potential of such properties in a challenging submarket and would pay mostly cash because of the risk.
In the third quarter, nearly 42 percent of Petaluma office space was available for lease, and 274,000 more square feet of such space was put back on the market than leased, according to Keegan & Coppin.
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Multifamily property brokerage NorCal Commercial relocated its offices from Larkspur to 777 Grand Ave., Ste. 205, in San Rafael.
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Submit items for this column to Jeff Quackenbush at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com, 707-521-4256 or fax 707-521-5292.
