New owners of former Fireman’s Fund office campus eye 63-acre Novato site for housing, retail

A vacant three-building office campus built for Fireman’s Fund Insurance in north Novato almost four decades ago now has new owners who are floating redevelopment ideas such as housing and local retail.

San Marin Owner LLC, led by Bay West Development, a San Francsico-based development firm, and Forum Investment Group, a Colorado-based real estate investment and development firm, on Tuesday purchased the 63-acre property at 775, 777 and 779 San Marin Drive following a foreclosure on the property in late 2019.

Bill Poland, founder of Bay West, in the deal announcement Friday called it “ a truly special piece of property” he’s known about in his 40 years of living in Marin and as a longtime board member of The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, located a short distance to the north of the campus.

Key features of the site that he said makes it right for “thoughtful and purposeful redevelopment” are proximity to a Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit station, near central Novato and close to open space. That north Novato station, which was planned a decade ago, was built just across the street to the east largely to service the campus, as well as neighborhoods to the west of it.

“Rather than a gated-off, empty office complex, we see an incredible opportunity for this site to become part of the fabric of Novato that blends housing, neighborhood retail, gathering spaces, and other amenities into a cohesive vision,” Poland said in the news release.

What happens next with the property will come after consultations with the city and community, Poland told the Business Journal. A website, 777sanmarinca.com, has been set up to provide project updates. A previous owner had floated a redevelopment plan that included more office space plus lodging and apartments.

“We did see their plans, and they were from a different time and different place,” Poland said. “We’re looking at the needs of Novato and what really would be most important for the community and city.”

Pete Beritzhoff, a Bay West partner, said that while the project is in its early stages, three elements likely won’t be included.

“It’s safe to say that keeping the office buildings as they stand today is unlikely with the current state of the market,” he told the Journal. But he sees housing as in-demand around the bay.

“There is a crying need for more housing, certainly in most cities,” Poland said. “The benefit in getting along with that the (below-market-rate) units mean a lot for cities like Novato for fire(fighters) and teachers and postdocs from Buck Institute. In general, there also is a flight to places were outdoor spaces mean much more to people after what they’ve been through in the COVID experience.”

Poland saw parallels between the Novato property and Bay West’s current Alameda Marina project in the East Bay. While the San Marin Drive site is nestled against the Marin hills, the Alameda site sits alongside the San Francisco Bay.

The redevelopment plan crafted with the city of Alameda includes over 790 apartments and townhomes on 27 acres plus local-serving retail and waterfront-serving businesses. Demolition has begun on existing buildings, and construction is set to start in March on 368 apartments. A contract is pending with builder for townhomes on the property.

Fireman’s Fund relocated to the Novato campus in 1982 from San Francisco, Employment in the 710,000 square feet of offices peaked at around 2,400 in 2000, about a decade after Allianz acquired the company. Staffing in Novato dwindled to about 500 before the relocation to Petaluma in 2015. Portions of the buildings had been leased to other companies until the Fireman’s Fund lease expired in November 2018.

San Diego-based American Assets Trust Inc., a real estate investment firm, bought the property in 2007 for $313.8 million and floated a redevelopment plan that would add 700,000 square feet of office and retail space, a 170-room hotel, and 150 multifamily housing units to the property. But it later nixed those plans.

The San Marin Drive property is still zoned for business professional office.

In 2019, an affiliate of New York-based DW Partners picked up the property in foreclosure, according to public records. The new owners acquired the property from DW. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed.

Speculation about reuse of the site has been swirling for a few years, with real estate industry rumors that big tech companies such as Google had been scouting the property for a satellite campus.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before the Business Journal, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. He has a degree from Walla Walla University. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.