Equus Capital Sells Major San Jose Mixed-Use Project

By Barbra Murray

City View Plaza

NKF Capital Markets has orchestrated the sale of City View Plaza, a premier mixed-use property in San Jose, Calif., the city dubbed the Capital of Silicon Valley. Acting on behalf of Equus Capital Partners Ltd., the commercial real estate advisory firm sold the 579,500-square-foot office and retail asset to Jay Paul Co.

“The investment community was very interested in this offering given its location and gross deal size. We completed over 60 property tours and received a healthy amount of offers,” Edmund Najera, an executive managing director with NKF Capital Markets, told Commercial Property Executive. “The process was very competitive.”

City View last changed hands in 2007 when an affiliate of Equus, BPG Investment Partnership VIII & VIIIA LP, picked up the asset for $169.5 million. Occupying a full city block in downtown San Jose, City View features nine buildings encompassing 534,000 square feet of office space and 45,500 square feet of retail. The 11-acre property also offers a 138,000-square-foot plaza and accommodations for more than 1,000 vehicles in subterranean and structured parking facilities.

Along with Najera, the NKF Capital Markets team representing Equus in the City View trade included Steven Golubchik, a vice chairman with the firm, and David Hosler, a senior analyst. Matt Wyman and Lindsey Barr, attorneys with law firm Cox, Castle & Nicholson, provided counsel to the seller. Rob Butchenhart, vice president & manager of Equus’ West Coast office, managed the operational aspects of the disposition.

Seeing the future in San Jose

Following its purchase of City View more than a decade ago, Equus commenced a $10 million renovation and repositioning of the property, which was then known as Park Center Plaza. Today, the mixed-use destination is 85 percent leased—and rife with potential.

“Given the central location of City View Plaza, Jay Paul will do very well,” Najera said. “In addition, downtown San Jose continues to get better and better at attracting larger tech tenants and providing the live/work lifestyle people want.”

It hasn’t been just a good quarter in San Jose, it’s been a good year. Net absorption for 2018 totaled nearly 1.7 million square feet at mid-year, according to a report by commercial real estate services firm Newmark Knight Frank, of which NKF Capital Markets is the financial services division. Lease transactions include cloud computing services firm 8×8’s commitment to approximately 162,600 square feet at the Coleman Highline project earlier this year. On the other end of the size spectrum, Micron Technologies signed on for 603,000 square feet at 110-130 Holger Way in Silicon Valley’s largest direct lease of the second quarter.

Image courtesy of NKF Capital Markets