Welcome to "almost year end".  OMG.  By now, the Christmas food, wine and conversations have probably worn off.  Right?  So it's time to get ready for New Year's and 2014.  So.....do me a favor......right now........take 2 minutes (set your timer, phone timer, oven timer, etc).  Take 2 minutes to think about what you're truly thankful for.  Your spouse?  kids?  job?  What is it that you are thankful for?!  How can you show it?  

When purchasing and/or leasing a building, please confirm with the City what or if they require for sewer laterals.  Many cities are now requiring the new landlord/owner/tenant to test the sewer lateral; and if defective, replace it at the property owner's expense!  Yikes.   And some Cities are just building that into their budget, that the laterals from the building(s) to the street main will be performed by the building owner.  Not sure?  Call the City or us for advice.  It could be a $10-20k + unknown challenge, that might affect your deal!

 

Yoko's was a long, enduring project beset with a few challenges.   With the City of Fremont's cooperation, we were able to move Yoko's into their new home at 43640 S. Grimmer Blvd.  The new studio is simply amazing.  Unfortunately, Yoko Young passed away before being able to see the new facility.   Yoko's passing simply made us ALL aware of our mortality.   We were able to celebrate "Yoko Young Day", as declared by the City of Fremont, at a special Nutcracker performance on December 15.   It was truly amazing!

What do you get when you "mix" (pun intended) two ambitious,  knowledgeable Frenchmen with an old warehouse in Burlingame?   A world class French Bakery, soon too with a retail component.    

 

Now that Scott (Giammona) and Jose (Carranza) have made it through this project, they could probably bake some killer bread too!  Ha Ha.  

 

And we ALL consider Mehdi and Alain, the partners in Petits Pains, not just clients......but true friends.  Drop by when you're in the neighborhood for truly fantastic bread.  They are located at 1730 Gilbreth Rd. (Burlingame). 

About Petits Pains:

 

 Petits Pains & Co (pronounced PEH-TEE PAN) is a new bakery in the Bay Area. We bake fresh homemade specialties everyday, and bring our authentic French bread and patisseries to your door.
We live and work by our motto \u201cRise to the occasion\u201d, which means we always strive to produce and deliver the most superior Breads & Breakfast Pastries, while maintaining and honoring our ancient
tradition and savoir-faire. We pride ourselves in baking the most
healthful and wonderful products and are dedicated to making our customers as enchanted as can be.

Products Offered:

- Baguettes
- Batards
- Foccacias
- Whole wheat & Country Breads
- Rolls
... and much more!

Petits Vision:

Our business is to provide the highest quality products at the most competitive prices. The wholesale bakery and the retail
store were built from the ground up with the latest manufacturing equipment imported from Europe. Let\u2019s us share some of our secrets: - Our viennoiseries are baked exclusively
with French butter - We make our own \u201clevain\u201d in-house
according to a centenary recipe - We leave our dough rest and rise for an exceptionally long time, leading to well-vented breads, with an earthiest taste. All of these qualities and extra care are what differentiates us from the others and allows us to produce the best breads and pastries on the West Coast.

 

After years of planning and debate, BART'S connection to the Oakland International Airport is one year away from completion.

During three years of construction, the $484 Million project has led to 1,316 jobs on the site; about 60 percent were filled by Bay Area workers.

The connector-an automated, elevated tram-is designed to link  3.2 miles between the Coliseum Station and airport. Today, on a shuttle bus, that trip takes about 15 minutes in light traffic vs. the eight minute travel time promised.

 

 The Oakland airport tram came under heavy scrutiny in recent years. Initially the proposed cost was pegged at a bit more than $100 Million. Now the project is expected to cost $484 Million.

Money well spent or just another expenditure Oakland didn't need??? Hmmm..... question for the masses?   What are your thoughts??  One can say that it brought in much needed jobs and garnered Oakland some good press.

 

When you spend long hours riding your motorcycle, it's common to end up with a dead cell phone. You've taken pictures along the way, maybe updated them to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, checked your maps app or GPS, and probably made some phone calls. Now there's a simple solution to keep your cell phone charged while riding.

Cell Phone Charger for Motorcycle Pink
Offered in black, gray and pink, the ZootFresh charger is a simple and small-sized solution to keeping a cell phone charged while riding.

The ZootFresh charge ,yes, funny name, but you won't forget it was designed to charge cell phones, GPS and MP3 players from a motorcycle's battery tender connection. One end of the charger has a USB connection, the part that connects to your cell phone charger, the other end plugs into a 2-pin SAE connection. An SAE cable connects to your motorcycle's battery terminals; that is where it draws the charge. You will need to buy that separately.

It has been an incredibly active year, both in commercial real estate and the world at large. This quarter though, we are going to focus more heavily on Silicon Valley real estate as there are so many exciting things in progress.

The Economy:
      Internet valuations - a repeat of 1999? Are we in a bubble?  While internet stock prices are soaring, tech and finance veterans say this time is different. "Silicon Valley: Feel the Froth"

      Crowd funding - The SEC is proposing new rules for companies to sell to large numbers of unaccredited investors- this could have a major impact on the real estate investment market. "Will Wisdom of the Crowd Become a Major Financing Source for CBRE Deals?"

      Interest rates - although rates have been falling recently, Mary Ludgin of Heitman predicts that the 10 year Treasury rate will rise to 4% by the end of 2014 from the current rate of 2.9%.
     
      Venture capital investment activity rose in both dollars spent and number of deals - 12% and 5% respectively from Q2 '13. "Dollars Invested by Venture Capitalists Rise 12 Percent in Q3 2013"

State of Silicon Valley Commercial Real Estate:
See Colliers Q3 2013 Silicon Valley Research & Forecast Report and Colliers Q3 2013 Market Statistics for newsletter and complete Q3 2013 statistics.
Below is a short summary of the overall market (changes are based on comparisons to Q2 2013):
      Silicon Valley availability rate - dropped slightly from 12.56% to 12.32% - a change of 3%.
      New leasing and user sale activity decreased by 15.5%.
  Industrial - the only product type to see an increase in new user activity.
      Gross and net absorption down 15% and 56% respectively but was anticipated based on the blistering pace of earlier activity.

Action Around Town:

 Complementing the new Levis stadium (new 68,500 seat open air Santa Clara home for the San Francisco 49ers - completion planned in time for the 2014 NFL season) are 2 mega projects; City Center and Centennial Gateway. "Megaprojects next to 49ers stadium begins to take shape".

  Samsung - not just one but two campuses under construction - 680,000 square feet in North San Jose and 385,000 square feet in Mountain View. Additional square footage in several short-leases.

  Winner of the most space purchased and leased in the third quarter of 2013 award - Google bought approximately 1.04mm square feet in 16 buildings and leased approximately 948k sf in 4 buildings.

  Major leases (excepting Google) - Netflix pre-leased 243,000 square feet in Los Gatos; Western Digital leased 188,000 square feet in San Jose and LinkedIn leased an additional 123,000 square feet in Sunnyvale.

Development Activity:

  Under construction-  2.977mm square feet with Sunnyvale leading at 971,000 square feet. Largest projects are Kilroy 560,000 square feet in Sunnyvale at 555 Matilda, 341,000 square feet also being built by Kilroy for Synopsys in Mountain View and Main Street Cupertino a 260,000 square feet mixed use project developed by Peter Pau.

  Planned within the next 12 months - 7.61mm square feet with Sunnyvale leading again with 2.71mm square feet. Apple's 2.8mm square foot campus in Cupertino is now scheduled to be completed in 2016.  Jay Paul intends to begin construction on Moffett Place (total project size of 2mm square feet) in Sunnyvale.

  Potential development in the next 12 months -  29.4mm square feet with San Jose leading with 17.88 million square feet. The largest project being contemplated is Santa Theresa Research Park- a Sobrato Development project equaling 4.4mm square feet in South San Jose.  Peery  Arrillaga's concept for its 20 acres at Brokaw/North First Street/Hwy. 101 includes 2mm square feet of Class A office in 10 buildings.  And further north, there is the 1.8 mm square foot  North First Campus being developed by Lowe Enterprises.

Investment:

  As we may have mentioned before, there is just a "wall of money" seeking increased returns through the purchase of real estate. Median cap rates for most investment properties range from 6.5% to 7.5%.

  Largest investment sales- TMG Partners et al. bought 8 buildings from Cisco totaling 811k square feet for approximately $190/sf; Tishman Speyer sold a 3 building, 425k square foot project (100% leased by Juniper) to Commonwealth REIT for $626/sf and Downtown Properties bought three Cupertino buildings (221,000 sf) from Rockwood Capital at a rumored price between $113 and $115 million.

And...

  On a list of most expensive streets for office space, California ranks #1.  In fact, the Bay Area holds three spots in the top 10 rankings.  Office space on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park has the most expensive at nearly $111 per square foot per year.  The 3rd most expensive site is on University Avenue in Palo Alto at $95 psfpy.  And California Street in San Francisco comes in 6th at $62 psfpy.
Best wishes for happy holidays and the remainder of 2013.  Please always feel free to call or write with any of your real estate questions or needs, regardless of location.
www.colliers.com

We've all been complaining about the cold weather this month.  But let me tell you......nothing beats -60 degrees (that's right.......60 degrees BELOW zero!) in Michigan.  When I was attending Michigan State University (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth), there were a few occasions where I/we had to walk to class, past the football practice field (no wind protection!) on the way to class........at -60 degrees!  YIKES!  Now that's cold..........you can't feel a thing.