Silicon Valley Mixed-Use Project Gets $250M

By Scott Baltic

Ameswell Mountain View

HFF has arranged a $250 million capitalization for the development of Ameswell Mountain View. The brokerage firm worked both on behalf of the developer, Broadreach Capital Partners, to arrange a joint venture equity partnership with Rockwood Capital, and secured $140 million in construction financing with Wells Fargo Bank. The joint venture broke ground on the upcoming building and selected Newmark Knight Frank’s Palo Alto office to be in charge of leasing duties. 

The Ameswell site is at Highway 101 and Moffett Boulevard in Mountain View and has access to Highways 85 and 237 and I-280. The Mountain View Baby Bullet Caltrain station is less than a mile away. The mixed-use project comprises a 216,700-square-foot, Class A, LEED Platinum office building and a 255-room upscale independent hotel in Mountain View, Calif. 

The $250 million total capitalization includes debt and equity on both the office building and the hotel and the contributions from both general partner Broadreach and limited partner Rockwood, Ben Bullock, a senior managing director with HFF, told Commercial Property Executive.

Amenity-rich project

The five-story creative office building will feature floor-to-ceiling glass lines that provide abundant natural light, 14-foot ceilings, 47,000-square-foot floorplates and photovoltaic solar. Amenities will include a 2.5-acre park, terraces and break-out areas to merge workspace and nature, dedicated bike and pedestrian trails, and electric vehicle charging stations. 

The Ameswell Hotel will feature 6,258 square feet of meeting and event space, a destination bar and restaurant a grab-and-go market; outdoor gathering spaces with a swimming pool, fire pits, bocce ball court and a large lawn; and sustainable operating practices. A six-tier parking structure will support the development.

The HFF equity and debt placement team consisted of Senior Managing Directors Bruce Ganong and Michael Leggett, co-head of HFF’s West Coast team; Senior Director Ben Bullock; Director Thomas Foley and Analysts Austin White and Bercut Smith.

“Ameswell is one of the last fully entitled mixed-use development sites in Mountain View with prominent visibility from Highways 101 and 85,” Bullock said in a prepared statement. “With a submarket vacancy rate of less than five percent for Class A office in Mountain View, Ameswell is poised to capitalize on the abundant tenant demand for new product.”

Neither Broadreach nor Rockwood replied to Commercial Property Executive’s requests for additional information.

Green is hot

Ameswell Mountain View’s emphasis on environmental friendliness should be no surprise these days, especially in Silicon Valley or the Bay Area more generally. Yardi Matrix recently tallied a list of the top 10 Bay Area green office buildings by square footage, and all are LEED-certified, including two Silver, five Gold and two Platinum.

Though one might assume that the list is packed with newer buildings, and indeed one was completed in 2015, in fact, most were built pre-2000, and the oldest, Kaiser Center Tower in Oakland, was completed in 1960—yet reached LEED Platinum in 2017.

Rendering courtesy of RYS Architects