Chevron Sells California HQ, Downsizes

Bishop Ranch. Image courtesy of Sunset Development Co.

Sunset Development Co. has acquired Chevron Park, a 1.3 million-square-foot office campus in San Ramon, Calif., serving as the global headquarters of Chevron.

The second-largest U.S.-based oil company announced plans to sell the campus at 6001 Bollinger Canyon Road in June, as part of the multinational energy corporation’s plans to downsize its California footprint, focusing instead on its Houston presence.

Sunset Development Co. sold the 92-acre site, part of Bishop Ranch, in early 1981 to Chevron. With the completion of the current sale,  the family-owned company has now reacquired the two largest parcels of the 600-acre, mixed-use campus, which started taking shape in 1978.

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Alex Mehran Jr., president & CEO of Sunset Development Co., did not reveal any specific plans for Chevron Park, but described the asset as “the gateway to Bishop Ranch” and a key part of the company’s plan to create a distinct California community. As of August, the Bay Area metro had 7.7 million square feet of office projects under construction, representing 3.9 percent of total stock.

In late 2013, a joint venture between Sunset Development Co. and MetLife Investment Management paid $250 million to AT&T—the parent of Pacific Bell—for the 143-acre parcel, home to BR 2600 totaling 1.8 million square feet of office space. Office transaction volume across the Bay Area metro reached nearly $3.2 billion through the end of August, based on CommercialEdge. These came to an average of $481 per square foot, well above the national average of $258 per square foot.

The new San Ramon space

Bishop Ranch – 2600

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the LEED Gold-certified property also known as Bishop Ranch – 2600 includes 100,000-square-foot floorplates, 130,570 square feet of retail space and 5,510 parking spaces at a ratio of 3.20 spaces per 1,000 square feet, CommercialEdge data shows.

The four-building office complex will be the new home to Chevron, as the company signed a 400,000-square-foot lease with the co-owners. Chevron selected NBBJ to customize the space within the 1983-built building, which was completely revamped in 2014, according to CommercialEdge. The new space at 2600 Camino Ramon will house up to 2,000 employees after interior construction wraps up in late 2023.

The tenant list includes BlackBerry, Sapphire and Trumark Homes, among others. BR 2600 also features coworking space through WeWork. As of August, the vacancy rate for the Bay area clocked in at 15.4 percent, 60 basis points higher than the national average.