PETALUMA -- Basin Street Properties has completed the repurchase of three Petaluma office buildings totaling 210,000 square feet, with almost half of it reserved for local photovoltaic system developer Enphase Energy to expand into later this year.
Basin Street affiliate Sequoia Center LLC purchased 1400 N. McDowell Blvd., 1420 N. McDowell and 5341 Old Redwood Hwy. from a lender on June 28 for about $13 million, or about $62 a square foot. The buildings were previously occupied by Alcatel-Lucent, which consolidated its Petaluma operations to 16,000 square feet in south Petaluma in April, and Digilock, which relocated to two north Petaluma buildings purchased last year.
Enphase on June 3 signed a 10-year leases with Basin Street for 96,000 square feet in 1400 and 1420 N. McDowell. Its current lease of 22,000 square feet at a Basin Street property in downtown Petaluma expires in November.
"We explored a number of options to accommodate our growth plan in Petaluma,” said Paul Nahi, Enphase chief executive officer. "However, as a tenant with Basin Street for the last several years, they understood our company's needs from a business and real estate perspective, and the buildings at Redwood Business Park were an ideal solution for us. We are pleased to continue our growth in Petaluma and provide high quality jobs in an exciting industry to the local talent pool."
Enphase signed its first lease with Basin Street for 1,000 square feet in 2008. Since then, the company has grown substantially, reaching nearly $62 million in revenue last year and planning to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering of stock. The company employs more than 200, mostly in Petaluma.
Basin Street so far this year has spent roughly $21 million re-acquiring eight buildings in Redwood Business Park, including five buildings repurchased in March. These were part of a 44-building office and office-type property portfolio in Sonoma and Marin counties Basin Street sold to Equity Office in 2005 for $265 million. Over the past year, Equity Office gave back 18 buildings to lenders, which have sold them to companies and organizations such as Petaluma Health Center and investors such as Basin Street.
"We are starting to see a resurgence in the Petaluma area as evidenced by a number of recent relocations of several companies who have made sizeable commitments to the region and to the Redwood Business Park, such as Enphase Energy," said Matt White, president of Basin Street. "As one of Petaluma’s biggest employers, it was critical to the region to find a real estate solution that could meet their current and future growth. Our ability to re-acquire buildings at the Redwood Business Park enabled us to maintain Enphase's corporate headquarters in Petaluma and we are thrilled that we are able to facilitate this opportunity on behalf of the community."
