WORLD PROPERTY CHANNEL ®

• Solar panel roof designer signs largest industrial lease in 20 years in San Francisco market
• Solyndra Inc. of Fremont, CA takes entire 506,490-square-foot Page Technology Park in Fremont
• Twelve-year lease value is estimated at $45 million
• Separately, logistics software firm leases 325,000 square feet in Tennessee, largest in third quarter
• Tenant OHL of  Brentwood, TN manages 32 million square feet globally

Page Technology Park

(DENVER, CO) -- Two big industrial leases have been separately completed in California and Tennessee, signaling a possible upturn in the manufacturing sector.

• In Fremont, CA, Solyndra Inc. signed a 12-year lease for the entire 506,490-square-foot Page Technology Park.

• In Mt. Juliet, TN, OHL of Brentwood, TN signed a lease for an entire 325,000-square-foot bulk distribution building owned by Denver, CO-based DCT Industrial Trust.

Timur Tecimer

Timur Tecimer, president and chief operations officer of Overton Moore Properties, owner of Page Technology Park,  calls the lease the largest warehouse and manufacturing transaction of its kind in 20 years in the San Francisco Bay area.

He did not disclose terms of the deal but Tennessee industry sources in a position to know estimated the gross value of the lease at over $45 million.  That would bring the per-square-foot rent to about $7.50.

"This is terrific news for the (industrial) market," says Tecimer. "It's a great way to finish up 2009."

Overton Moore purchased the park in December 2008 from Hewlett-Packard for an undisclosed sum. The deal was all-cash with a six-month leaseback from Hewlett-Packard.

Tecimer says Overton Moore was "one of the few buyers in the marketplace that could actually close deals during the (recessionary) fourth quarter of 2008."

The tenant, Solyndra, designs and manufactures photovoltaic systems, comprised of panels and mounting hardware, for the commercial rooftop market. The company is swamped with new orders and  has a contractual backlog of over $2 billion, according to Tecimer.

Rob Shannon

"OMP believed, as did we, that the heavy infrastructure and clear height along with the building's size were very desirable attributes for the emerging clean tech segment of the market," says Rob Shannon, a senior vice president in the San Jose, CA office of CB Richard Ellis.

"Solyndra was always on the radar, given their pipeline of business, but we had very detailed discussions with a number of other larger tenants as well," Shannon adds.

Shannon, Joe Kelley and Ben Knight of CBRE's San Jose office and Greig Lagomarsino of Colliers International represented Overton Moore.  John Olenchalk of GVA Kidder Mathews negotiated for Solyndra.

In the Tennessee transaction, the 325,000-square-foot lease is believed to be the largest in the Nashville metropolitan market in the third quarter, according to local industrial brokerage sources.

John Tugman, vice president and regional director of leasing for DCT Industrial Trust, did not disclose terms of the leasing deal.

He says the tenant, OHL, already occupies a total 1.1 million square feet across five markets "within the DCT network of properties." 

OHL manages 32 million square feet globally. The company provides supply chain management and logistics solutions for companies worldwide.

Randy Wolcott of ProVenture represented OHL.  Doug McDowell and Jeb Atkinson of the same Brentwood, TN-based brokerage firm negotiated for DCT. 

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