Bishop Ranch Bog

GE taps Silicon Valley talent for San Ramon site

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:37:20 -0600

GE taps Silicon Valley talent for San Ramon site

Tim Catts

Monday, April 16, 2012

More than a century after General Electric built its first research laboratory in an upstate New York barn, it's wooing Silicon Valley engineers in a bid to connect machines the way Facebook links people.

New hires are coming from Oracle, SAP and Symantec, as well as Stanford University and UC Berkeley, as GE persuades developers to forgo potential windfalls from initial public offerings to work for the last original member of the Dow Jones industrial average.

GE's vision for the so-called industrial Internet is to build networks that harvest data from heavy equipment, boosting efficiency for commercial users such as railroads and airlines. The center of the effort is a $1 billion facility in San Ramon that will be staffed with as many as 400 people. In the process, GE also hopes to disprove the notion that older stalwarts can't lure tech talent from younger, cooler startups.

"GE already has a brand, but when people take a step back they probably think about it as more related to an older company," said Shannon Callahan, head of technical talent at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. "But the magic about Silicon Valley is when you come out here and you're building something new, you get the opportunity to brand it as something new."

Bill Ruh came from Cisco Systems last year to lead the venture as a GE vice president and has been hiring ever since.

"They want to be in on the next big thing," he said.

Technology enabling companies to remotely coordinate locomotive traffic and monitor wind turbines is "going to be a disruptor in these industries in a way that's as unpredictable as it was in the consumer world," Ruh said.

The field is known as "big data." Just as information on millions of Facebook users is prized by advertisers, the details companies amass on their operations are deemed valuable in cutting costs and increasing profit. For GE, it's also a chance to see products in action.

The data venture is a new front in what Vice Chairman John Rice calls a global war for talent. GE, the world's largest maker of medical imaging equipment and jet engines, must recruit against computer-services companies ranging from unprofitable startups to IBM.

Unlike GE, Facebook and other startups can dangle the prospect of pre-IPO equity before candidates. Facebook, which had 3,200 employees at the end of last year, said in December that it plans to add thousands more people in the coming months.

"Even a high-profile startup with great investors and a skyrocketing valuation has challenges recruiting the best people in the valley, because it's such a tight labor market here," said Ashwin Navin, co-founder and CEO of Flingo, a social TV service. "I can only imagine what it's like if you're a large multinational conglomerate without the same upside in your stock options."

Without the lure of IPO riches, GE has to appeal to the desire of engineers and developers to work on cutting-edge projects, said Callahan, who is based in Menlo Park. The software center's location in San Ramon is also a selling point for recruiting people.

GE's hires include Jonathan Ballon as the software venture's chief operating officer, and Chief Technology Officer Alok Batra, both from Cisco in San Jose, according to the company. Chief Marketing Officer John Magee joined from Symantec earlier this year, while Andrew Crow, director of design, came from Razorfish, an online marketing business. Former Google and Oracle employees also are among the recruits, according to Ruh.

Sharoda Paul, 30, one of GE's first hires for the initiative, has a doctorate in information sciences from Pennsylvania State University and was a National Science Foundation research fellow at the Palo Alto Research Center, formerly Xerox Parc, before joining GE late last year.

"There are a few motivations to get into software," she said. "One is to IPO, and another is to have people really use your product.

"We have a huge amount of resources and backing from GE that helps us take risks and innovate," she added.

U.S. demand for skilled workers with the technical background and education to analyze big data will outpace supply by 140,000 to 190,000 jobs by 2018, according to a May 2011 study by McKinsey & Co. Employers will face an additional shortage of 1.5 million managers and analysts who can apply those findings to businesses, the report found.

GE's research roots run deep, even if it's a new arrival in big data. Founded by Thomas Edison in 1892, the company established its first laboratory eight years later in the barn of chief consulting engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz.

GE is developing technologies to help minimize bottlenecks in train traffic and reduce air travel disruptions from unscheduled engine maintenance, Ruh said. That will enhance the service offerings that accounted for 45 percent of last year's $94 billion of industrial revenue, according to GE.

Tim Catts is a Bloomberg writer. tcatts1@bloomberg.net

San Francisco Leads Rent Growth as U.S. Office Vacancy Falls

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:55:26 -0600

What we’ve all been waiting for has happened and the economic recovery is in full swing in the Bay Area. The Tri-Valley has seen major tenants such as GE, PG&E, Bank of the West, Five9 and Clorox increase their presence in our market and rent growth has followed. Rental rates will continue to increase over the next few years as more technology, professional services and engineering firms grow and hire.

San Francisco Leads Rent Growth as U.S. Office Vacancy Falls

by Hui-yong Yu of BLOOMBERG

Demand from technology and energy- industry tenants led the U.S. office market to its fifth straight quarterly gain in net occupancy, with San Francisco leading the country in rent growth, Reis Inc. (REIS) said.

Office landlords had a net increase in leased space of almost 6 million square feet (557,000 square meters) in the three months through March, compared with 6.1 million square feet a year earlier, the New York-based real estate research firm said in a report today. The vacancy rate dropped to 17.2 from 17.6 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

Buildings stand along the skyline of San Francisco. Photographer: Chip Chipman/Bloomberg

Occupancy and rents are increasing as the U.S. economyslowly recovers from the recession and the office market rebounds after three years of net losses in leased space. Cities with a large base of technology employers, including Boston,Seattle and San Francisco and San Jose in California, accounted for five of the 10 strongest markets for rent growth last quarter, Reis said.

“Technology is growing faster than any other industry” and those companies are willing to pay a premium for locations that will attract employees, said Bill Goade, chief executive officer of Boston-based Cresa, the largest tenant-representation firm inNorth America. “Law firms and financial services are all trying to do with less square footage.”

Technology Expansion

Expansion by technology tenants such as Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and EMC Corp (EMC), the largest maker of storage computers, helped shrink vacancies on the West Coast and Northeast, while strength in oil and natural-gas demand bolstered Texas, Reis said. Office markets in cities that got overbuilt during the housing boom, including Las Vegas, remain weak, according to the report.

Nationwide, effective rents, or what tenants pay after landlord concessions, rose to an average $22.66 a square foot from $22.20 a year earlier, Reis said.

San Francisco’s average office rent rose 6.8 percent during the past year. A slow recovery in financial services held New York to the second-biggest gain, 4.8 percent, Reis said. Rents climbed 4.1 percent in San Jose, 2.5 percent in Boston and Houston, and 2.3 percent in Denver and Seattle. Houston is home to energy employers including BP America, Citgo Petroleum Corp. and ConocoPhillips. (COP)

Washington had the lowest vacancy rate, 9.4 percent, followed by New York at 10.4 percent, according to Reis. San Francisco had the eighth-lowest rate at 14.2 percent. Thirty- four of the 79 major markets tracked by the firm had office vacancies lower than the national average.

Read the entire article at BLOOMBERG

Real Estate Deals of the Year. Winner/ Best office lease, suburban: General Electric

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:29:50 -0600

When General Electric Co. was looking to create a billion-dollar Bay Area software center, the global conglomerate did its homework, studying regional demographics, traffic patterns and the like.

What the data showed was that the Tri-Valley — where interstates 580 and 680 intersect — had a large concentration of software engineers with five to 15 years of experience who had sunk roots in the area, often despite long commutes to the South Bay, to get affordable housing and a good quality of life.

So in November, Connecticut-based GE announced that it had taken a 10-year lease for about 125,000 square feet at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, one of the largest transactions in the East Bay in 2011, with a total value of roughly $50 million.

“We wanted to be here to go after people,” said Bill Ruh, vice president of software at GE, of the resident engineering population. “To offer them a great quality of life and the opportunity to work on projects that have deep meaning,” like technology for electronic vehicles, or to improve power distribution or develop health care products.

“We’re talking about stuff you can explain to your family, and you get a sense of accomplishment,” said Ruh, who is in charge of GE’s new software headquarters.

Ruh has described the new software center’s mission as enabling the advent of the “Industrial Internet,” in which machines ranging from gas turbines, medical image makers, oil rigs and aircraft engines constantly communicate data with other systems.

Rather than having to travel to work elsewhere, Ruh theorized, many of the region’s resident engineers likely would be interested in working locally for a company like GE, which also looked seriously at the South Bay.

Marc Fontes, economic development director for the city of San Ramon, said he expects the area economy to benefit not only because GE is bringing entirely new jobs — as opposed to relocating jobs from elsewhere in the region — but also it will likely spawn vendor businesses and startups in related technologies.

GE expects to hire more than 400 people by 2013, and it can expand its lease up to 233,000 square feet to accommodate up to 1,000 employees. It has already added 25,000 square feet to the 125,000 square feet previously announced.

Having access to additional space to expand was a key factor in GE’s selecting Bishop Ranch, Ruh said. In addition to those considerations, Ruh said GE chose to set up camp in San Ramon because of the quality of the buildings and the amenities of the Bishop Ranch business park. Bishop Ranch is a 10 million-square-foot setting that boasts 600 corporate tenants, including the world headquarters of Chevron Corp., the regional headquarters of AT&T, and large outposts of Robert Half International and Bank of the West.

The complex is owned by Sunset Development Co., a family-owned business founded in 1951. Vacancy is currently at 13 percent, said Ed Hagopian, a senior vice president at Bishop Ranch.

GE is moving into Bishop Ranch 3, a nearly 30-acre site with 934,696 square feet in four five-story buildings.

The complex has a big outdoor fountain where food trucks congregate, a cafe, lots of free parking, conference rooms, showers and lockers, and it is next to the East Bay Regional Park District’s Iron Horse bicycle and pedestrian trail, which runs from San Ramon to Concord.

Finally, Ruh said Sunset Development officials were flexible and responsive in helping GE get started with temporary offices while design work for the new software center went ahead.

GE has about 100 people working now in temporary headquarters at Bishop Ranch, and Ruh expects to move into long-term space this summer.

Representing GE in the transaction were Bill Daugherty and Sabrina Hughes, executive directors of Cushman & Wakefield’s Walnut Creek office.

Winner
Location: 2623 Camino Ramon, San Ramon.
Size: 125,000 square feet.
Value: $50 million.
Tenant: General Electric.
Landlord: Sunset Development Co.
Brokers: Bill Dougherty and Sabrina Hughes of Cushman and Wakefield represented the tenant. Sunset Development represented itself.

PG&E opens new gas-operations center in San Ramon

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:07:41 -0600

About 800 PG&E gas employees will move to the Bishop Ranch office park initially, but more may follow. The 250,000-square-foot building that PG&E leased could accommodate up to 1,000. The 24-hour-a-day nerve center will accommodate PG&E workers now in San Francisco, Fresno, Walnut Creek and Concord.

"With engineers, emergency dispatchers, system operators, and others working side by side, we expect big gains in communication, efficiency and team building," said Nick Stavropoulos, the utility's executive vice president of gas operations.

The center will be responsible for monitoring and adjusting gas pressures in PG&E's vast network of pipelines.

"We're bringing together teams whose work needs to be coordinated," Stavropoulos said. "Bishop Ranch proved to be the best East Bay location that could accommodate a group of our size in one building."

The move is one of several PG&E initiatives to improve its gas operations. In the past year and a half, it has hired new leadership, separated its gas and electric businesses, compiled and reviewed pipeline records, and launched a far-reaching pipeline-testing and -replacement program.

The 2010 San Bruno gas explosion occurred after a power failure at a PG&E terminal in Milpitas caused pressure to increase along the gas transmission line. The explosion blew open a crater 72 feet long and 26 feet wide, launching a 28-feet section of 30-inch pipeline 100 feet. In the inferno, more than three dozen homes were destroyed and eight people were killed.

PG&E's new gas control center is planned to open this October but is not expected to be completed until the second quarter of 2013. The nerve center will oversee both the large transmission pipelines that deliver gas to populated areas, and PG&E's network of smaller distribution pipes that bring gas to customers' homes and businesses.

The PG&E deal is the latest in a string of large transactions at Bishop Ranch recently.

"With all of the deals happening at Bishop Ranch, that certainly strengthens San Ramon's key location as a business center in Northern California," said Marc Fontes, the city's economic development director.

General Electric leased space for a software complex that will have 400 employees. Bank of the West, Robert Half and Five9 also signed large deals that brought hundreds more to Bishop Ranch, one of the nation's prominent office parks.

The San Francisco-based utility signed a 10-year lease and has options to extend the rental deal nearly 25 more years to the spring of 2047. The lease was arranged through commercial realty brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.

By George Avalos

Contra Costa Times

Strong Leasing Momentum Continues at Bishop Ranch with Black and Veatch Signing a 15,000 Square Foot Lease

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:56:42 -0700

SAN RAMON, CA (December 30, 2011) – Black and Veatch, an employee-owned, $2.3 billion world–class engineering, consulting and construction leader today announced plans to lease 15,000 square feet in the Bishop Ranch 8 office complex on Executive Parkway in San Ramon. Ranked in the Forbes 500 as one of the largest privately-owned companies in the United States and designated the top U.S. engineering design company for both telecommunications and power projects in 2010, according to a study by Engineering News-Record, Black and Veatch has completed projects in more than 100 countries.

“Black and Veatch’s choice of Bishop Ranch, along with a flurry of recent lease activity, signals a convergence of new and growing businesses centered in San Ramon, said Ed Hagopian, executive vice president with Sunset Development, the developer of Bishop Ranch. “In the final quarter of 2011,General Electric announced its plans to hire 400 software engineers in a $1 billion research and office complex that will fill 225,000 square feet Bishop Ranch 3, and Five9 – a leading provider of software to create virtual call centers – signed a full-floor lease at Bishop Ranch 8. Together with a wide range of other businesses that have recently signed leases at Bishop Ranch, we see this as an enormously positive job growth indicator.”

Black & Veatch’s overall business growth is resulting in a need for additional professionals, especially in engineering and technical-related fields. The company is hiring worldwide, including job openings in San Ramon. "Communications infrastructure is rapidly improving the quality of life around the world and provides economic and improved operation efficiencies for businesses and governments,” said Len Rodman, Chairman, President and CEO of Black & Veatch in a recent announcement. Black & Veatch is experiencing strong global growth in its energy business as clients are launching projects to meet electric demand that is increasing following the global recession. Among its U.S. projects, Black & Veatch is involved in major electric transmission work and the development of renewable energy resources. The company is also providing nuclear licensing support and security upgrades as well as installing air-quality technology for power plants.

Since its establishment in 1978, numerous Global 2000 companies, including Chevron, General Electric, and Toyota, alongside numerous entrepreneurial companies have anchored the Bishop Ranch business community, home to over 550 businesses.

According to Hagopian, many companies are choosing Bishop Ranch for its superior array of amenities. The Bishop Ranch business community, which encompasses more than 9 million square feet of office space, earned a “Best Workplace for Commuters Award” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation among many other marks of distinction.

About Bishop Ranch Business Park

Established in 1978 by Sunset Development, Bishop Ranch is a 585-acre mixed use business community comprised of nine million square feet of office space in thirty buildings. More than 550 of the world's leading companies, innovative startups, and medical and dental practitioners make their home in the thriving professional business community of Bishop Ranch. The recipient of many awards including The Urban Land Institute’s Award for Excellence,

Bishop Ranch is home to many Global 2000 companies, including Chevron, General Electric, Toyota and Wells Fargo. http://www.bishopranch.com

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is a global leader in the consulting, engineering, construction and operation of what the world needs now and in the future in the crucial areas of energy, water and telecommunications and in providing up-to-the-minute services in the fast changing federal and environmental markets. Founded in 1915, the employee-owned, $2.3 billion company operates out of over 110 offices worldwide and has completed projects in more than 100 countries.

Contact:

Sunset Development

Ed Hagopian

925-866-0100

Five9 Signs Full-Floor Lease at Bishop Ranch

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:07:49 -0700

On-Demand Call Center Software Market Leader to Join GE Global Software Center, lBM, and Other Major Technology Firms at Bishop Ranch, San Ramon, CA

SAN RAMON, CA (December 22, 2011) Five9, the leading global provider of cloud-based call center software for sales, marketing, support and business continuity, serving tens of thousands of agents working for customers of all sizes on five continents, today announced its plan to relocate its global headquarters from Pleasanton to Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.

Five9, represented by Ted Helgans of Colliers, signed a full-floor lease of 50,000 square feet in one of the three 5-story buildings at the Bishop Ranch 8 office complex on Executive Parkway in San Ramon and plans to move in on March 1, 2012.

Since its establishment in 1978, numerous Global 2000 companies, including Chevron, General Electric, Toyota and Wells Fargo have anchored the Bishop Ranch business community, home to over 550 businesses. Today’s announcement by Five9, preceded by last month’s announcement by GE—which plans to open a $1 billion Global Software Center at Bishop Ranch, employing 400 software professionals—signals the emergence of the 580/680 corridor as a leading center for technology companies on the West Coast.

“Five9's relocation to Bishop Ranch highlights our commitment to providing technology companies with the tech space and flexibility they demand,” added Ed Hagopian, executive vice president with Sunset Development, the developer of Bishop Ranch. “And with the addition of Five9 and GE’s global software technology center, along with a number of clean tech companies, legacy technology companies like IBM, entrepreneurial companies who are poised to go public such as REPLY! and new exciting start ups like Ubokia, we are confident that our business community is a prime destination for innovation.”

Bishop Ranch encompasses more than 9 million square feet of office space in full.

About Bishop Ranch Business Park

Established in 1978 by Sunset Development, Bishop Ranch is a 585-acre mixed use business community comprised of nine million square feet of office space in thirty buildings. More than 550 of the world's leading companies, innovative startups, and medical and dental practitioners make their home in the thriving professional business community of Bishop Ranch. The recipient of many awards including The Urban Land Institute’s Award for Excellence,

Bishop Ranch is home to many Global 2000 companies, including Chevron, General Electric, Toyota and Wells Fargo.

http://www.bishopranch.com

About Five9

Five9 is the leading global provider of cloud-based call center software for Sales, Marketing and Support. The award-winning Five9 Virtual Call Center and Predictive Dialer serve customers of all sizes on five continents. Customers profit from Five9’s reliable, robust functionality that provides the best technology, improves agent productivity, and delivers business flexibility.

http://www.five9.com

Contact:

Sunset Development

Ed Hagopian

925-866-0100

Setting the Bishop Ranch Christmas Tree

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:16:48 -0700

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Bishop Ranch 2011 Video

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:10:31 -0700

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Bishop Ranch tenant Lea Journo chosen for the 2011 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:19:44 -0600

By Jessica Lipsky and Amelia Arvesen of the Danville Express. Two Danville business owners and one San Ramon businesswoman were chosen for the 2011 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award last week, sponsored by the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment, a microenterprise training and funding organization, the award recognizes exemplary local women.

"Women entrepreneurs are one of the strongest economic forces in this country," said Julie Castro Abrams, CEO of Women's Initiative. "We want to create a movement that promotes women's entrepreneurship and makes people aware of the incredible contributions women business leaders make not only to their local communities but also to economic recovery."

Approximately 600 businesses were nominated for the award and more than 42 women were selected, including Dynamic Office and Accounting Solutions owner Tiffany Stewart, Norm's Place owner Cindy Walsh and Dawn Duggar, of San Ramon-based Lea Journo Cosmetique. Winners must exemplify how business ownership is beneficial for women, have a positive impact on their community and be successful despite barriers that exist for female entrepreneurs.

Please see the entire article from the Danville Express here...

Bishop Ranch Fountains

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:27:00 -0600

Beautiful video of Bishop Ranch fountains.

Many times when touring office space, we are asked, "Do you have any water features?"

Check out the fountains at Bishop Ranch 1 in this video.

Bishop Ranch launches leasing referral program

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:15:07 -0600

Bishop Ranch would like to announce our new Referral Program- Refer a friend or colleague and we will reward you with $500

*Terms and Conditions

Referral program is for BR Ready offices (pre-built , as-is space)

Reward to be paid by check upon lease signing

Referral must:

• Result in a signed lease of at least 1 year

• Meet the standard Bishop Ranch leasing guidelines, including credit quality requirements and appropriate use

• Be referred directly without the involvement of a real estate broker

Referrer:

• Does not need to be a tenant of Bishop Ranch, any individual qualifies

• Must supply tax information for more than one referral per year (over IRS $600+ threshold)

Offer valid through the June 1st, 2012

Call (925) 866-0100 or email leasing@bishopranch.com

Smart Parents=Smart Kids?

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:00:37 -0600

One of the reasons businesses and residents are attracted to the San Ramon Valley is the quality of our public schools. I find it impressive that nearly 80 percent of students at Dougherty Valley High School who took the SAT in 2010 scored above a 1500! Eighty percent!

More statistics regarding the area high school's performance on the SAT's are included in this article.

One could make the argument that smart kids come from smart parents. And it's those smart (and well educated) parents who make up the labor pool in San Ramon and who fuel this region's reputation for innovation and success.

In a recent demographic study done for Bishop Ranch by Sedway Consulting, we learned that 49 percent of the population over age 25 in the primary commute shed for Bishop Ranch holds at least a bachelor's degree and 18 percent hold an advanced or professional degree. Both figures are higher than the Bay Area average and the California average.

Education is a hot topic both on the local and national stage and this community is committed to providing the necessary educational opportunities to advance in the workplace. There are many options for professional development and continuing education in San Ramon, including The University of California (UC) Davis Graduate School of Management's campus at Bishop Ranch, University of San Francisco's satellite campus at Bishop Ranch and Diablo Valley College in the the Dougherty Valley. UC Berkeley, St. Mary's College and California State University East Bay are all within 20 miles of San Ramon.

Unemployment rate lower in San Ramon than neighboring communities

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:44:35 -0600

San Ramon is faring better than most communities when it comes to unemployment. Despite a small creep upwards in July from 4.3 to 4.6 percent, San Ramon has one of the lowest unemployment rates in our area and is lower than Danville, Concord and Walnut Creek. Alameda and Contra Costa Country combined have an unemployment rate of 11 percent, which shows an improvement over last year's number at this time which was 11.6 percent. With statewide unemployment at 12.4% and the national rate at 9.2%, San Ramon is fortunate to have most of our residents hard at work and contributing to the economic recovery.

Please see full article at sanramonpatch.com

Incubator Concept Branching Out to New Industries - Blanca Torres, San Francisco Business Times

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:29:52 -0600

As the economy begins to recover, a brood of incubators is hatching, luring entrepreneurs and small businesses hoping to create the major companies of tomorrow. The newest incubators offer more than space for up and comers. They also offer collaboration with other incubator occupants. Sharing knowledge and resosurces, the companies may grow faster than they would on their own. In Oakland, the 25th Street Collective opened late last year to house fashion and design companies and promote sustainable business practices.

Co-founder Hiroko Kurihara, who designs and makes artisanal wool blankets, scarves and gloves, was looking for a way to grow her business out of her home and team up with other artists and designers. The group hopes to establish a co-op for people who sew.

“When you’re making your products on your own, you get to point where you want to bridge the gap between making everything to having employees,” Kurihara said. “I’m here to create jobs in Oakland.”

The incubator trend is not new, but it is gaining traction in the East Bay following the success of projects like Forest City’s 5M at 901 Mission St. in San Francisco, which converted a 150,000-square-foot space in the San Francisco Chroniclebuilding into a hub for about 1,000 start-ups.

In West Berkeley, Wareham Developmentand the University of California, Berkeley, teamed up to open QB3 East Bay Innovation Center a few months ago, which will house up to 15 life science, physical science and cleantech companies.
In Livermore, a facility known as i-GATE, which stands for Innovation for Green Advanced Transportation Excellence, also opened earlier this year to harness technology developed at the Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national labs. The incubator is run by a partnership between the labs and the city of Livermore and is part of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

Sungevity, a solar panel leasing company, launched Solar Dojo, an incubator focusing on the solar energy sector in January in the firm’s former offices in Berkeley.

“Incubators are ways in which resources are channeled to support businesses in very challenging times, but also in competitive industries,” said Scott Peterson, deputy director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance. “The help these incubators do to nurture these companies is a good thing in the long run.”

For some landlords like Sunset Development, owner of mega-corporate park Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, and bioscience giant Wareham Development, setting apart space for startups creates a pipeline of future, larger tenants.
“The idea is to accommodate the person who wanted to move out of his or her garage or start a company,” said Ed Hagopian, director of leasing for Sunset Development. “It’s a big, growing segment of commercial real estate and the heart of growth has always been entrepreneurial.”

Out of Bishop Ranch’s 9 million square feet of office space, about 750,000 square feet is dedicated to smaller tenants ranging from the one-person shop to enterprises with a few workers. Some suites offer private offices and some have open layouts. Some have phone lines, printers and Internet access so tenants can just show up and move in.
Sunset has offered small suites for more than 15 years and has also added shared spaces that include lounges, kitchens and conference rooms to fall in line with the collaboration trend that many companies and landlords are adopting.
“As the office user changed its demand, we skated to where the puck was going, not to where it is,” Hagopian said.
Demand grows not just from office users and scientists but other industries as well.

The 25th Street Collective is home to 11 artists, a Cole Coffee station, a common retail space, and a forthcoming wine bar for Two Mile Wines.

The 6,000-square-foot space at 477 25th St., a former glass factory, was larger than Kurihara originally considered, but the space offered lots of natural light, the industrial chic aesthetic and plenty of open space.

Besides the dozen artists who occupy the space, the collective hosts upwards of 20 vendors during Oakland’s monthly Art Murmur, an event that showcases art galleries in the city’s Uptown neighborhood.

One of the collective’s designers, Platinum Dirt, makes leather goods out of recycled materials salvaged from old cars. One of the company’s signature products is a purse shaped like a shark’s fin.

“I was working in my basement,” said Dustin Page, who started the company. “The resources, the pattern makers, having communal space, and sharing knowledge with everyone has been really helpful.”

Produce and attendance is growing in San Ramon

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:53:43 -0600

Location. Location. Location.

By Sophia Kazmi, Contra Costa Times 07/29/2011

It's the mantra in real estate. It could also be the mantra of the San Ramon Farmers Market.

The spring move of the Saturday market from its old location at Forest Home Farms to Bishop Ranch breathed new life into the 4-year-old market, with more patrons coming for the weekly market's fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, prepared foods and other items sold year-round.

Harv Singh, the market's founder, estimates 1,000 people shop the Saturday market -- open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.-- in the Bishop Ranch 2 parking lot, at Bollinger Canyon Road and Sunset Drive.

The market, across the street from a shopping center housing a Whole Foods Market and Target, is

pulling nearly double the attendance the Forest Home Farms site averaged in the past four years, Singh said.

Vendors have seen the difference. Laura Welch of Livermore-based Gelateria Americana said sales of her gelato have doubled, which she directly attributes to the increased foot traffic of the new location. "I can't tell you how many times I've heard, 'I was going to Target and I noticed the market,' " Welch said.

The market had a strong opening at Forest Home Farms, Singh said. About 1,500 packed the historic park opening day. The quaint location with its historic buildings, sheep and gardens was supposed to make the market distinctive and potentially become a regional draw. As time went on, however,attendance dwindled. The park on San Ramon Valley Boulevard was off the beaten path -- not near a freeway exit nor near other shops or restaurants -- and parking was an issue.

"When the word got out in the vendor community that San Ramon was a slow market, we weren't able to attract vendors anymore. "... After that, we needed to make some changes," he said.

After completing surveys, organizers sought a new location -- a place with lots of parking, good access and visibility and a good partnership. Singh found all that at the Bishop Ranch business park, which also donated the space.

Joel Gonzalez of Edith's Gourmet Baking Co. has worked the market at Forest Home Farms and at

Bishop Ranch. He said Forest Home was a nice location, but not many people were coming, which was not good for business. "It's a good place to hang out if you can find it," he said.

In addition to the Saturday market, an Artisan Food Market that will run May through October opened in June. It is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursdays and is drawing about 500 people a week, Singh said. It is located in the south-side parking lot of Bishop Ranch 3, at Bishop Ranch Drive at Camino Ramon.

That market has an emphasis on prepared foods where shoppers can get their fill of empanadas,

crepes, barbecue, and Afghan and Indian dishes -- and draws a different demographic -- workers from the businesses at Bishop Ranch. "It's just an alternative time to shop," Singh said.

Saturday Farmers Market

When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday year-round

Where: Bishop Ranch 2 parking lot, Bollinger Canyon Road and Sunset Drive.

Thursday Artisan Food Market

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, May through October

Where: Southside parking lot Bishop Ranch 3, Bishop Ranch Drive at Camino Ramon.

Details: Go to www.sanramonfarmersmarket.org

Sun doesn't set on his vision - By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:34:25 -0600

Alex Mehran's Bishop Ranch Business Park made San Ramon a crossroads of commerce, with 550 companies and 33,000 workers occupying the massive facility.

Now the principal executive of Sunset Development wants to create a new downtown for the East Bay city.

Mehran has fashioned an ambitious plan for what is dubbed the San Ramon City Center, complete with shops, restaurants, a hotel, plazas, open spaces and residences, all within Bishop Ranch.

"City Center is a major undertaking," he said. "It will have a significant impact on San Ramon, the greater Tri-Valley and Bishop Ranch."

The downtown is part of Mehran's vision for Bishop Ranch, which he wants to evolve beyond a collection of sleek office buildings, a place with a bunch of cubicles that's in business only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

"Bishop Ranch is a community, it is not just a project," Mehran said during an interview at his offices on Annabel Lane, a Bishop Ranch street named after his daughter.

Skeptics once lampooned San Ramon as "San Remote," due to its remove from San Francisco. However, Mehran and Bishop Ranch put the city on the map, and now it serves as home to an array of companies ranging from Chevron, AT&T, IBM and Toyota to tiny tenants that occupy as little as 200 square feet.

The park also hosts a farmers market, food trucks and an array of activities for its business tenants.

"There are all kinds of things going on at Bishop Ranch right now," said Andy Armanino, chief executive officer with Armanino Mc- Kenna, an accounting firm with its headquarters in the business park. "There are blood drives, there is going to be a walkathon, you have the foodie trucks. They had some Formula One race cars outside."

The proposal for a downtown San Ramon signals that Mehran is ready to push the envelope again. That's his nature, said Thomas Fehr, a Cornish & Carey Commercial senior vice president based in Walnut Creek.

"Alex has never rested on his laurels," Fehr said. "It's easy for a lot of people to rest on past successes. He keeps trying to embrace new technologies, innovations, amenities for Bishop Ranch."

"In any community there is change," Mehran said. "If a community is not changing, it is dying. Bishop Ranch will continue to change."

A future San Ramon City Center would include a mall with 650,000 square feet of high-end shopping, cafes, restaurants, a hotel, open spaces for performances and other public events, and 488 residential units.

Mehran hearkened back to a Silicon Valley triumph for what he'd like to see with the future downtown, pointing to the virtuous cycle between a legendary office park in Palo Alto and a landmark retail center nearby.

"Stanford Research Park was wholly different before the development of Stanford Shopping Center than it was afterward," Mehran said. "The same change will occur here in San Ramon."

The big problem for starting the project is the economy.

"We have to be careful to assure that we have the wind at our back when we develop the project," he said. "We need retail, hotels, residential to be in growth mode. But they are not in growth mode. They are suffering."

Still, Sunset is ready for the risk when the timing is right. The company has not hesitated to roll the dice on projects in the past.

"We have never developed a building with a tenant in hand," Mehran said. "Every building we have constructed was with the expectation we would find a customer later."

Bishop Ranch has been the scene of an array milestones.

In 1981, the first major occupant, Toyota, arrived. A year later, Chevron announced it would move a slew of operations to Bishop Ranch. The oil giant later shifted its headquarters there and left San Francisco. In 1983, Pacific Bell announced the largest corporate relocation in U.S. history, a defection from San Francisco that brought 7,500 workers to Bishop Ranch.

Bishop Ranch also paid for construction of the Interstate 680-Bollinger Canyon Road interchange, which in 1984 opened as the first privately financed interchange for a California freeway.

That event underscored Mehran's style, said Sunne McPeak, who was a county supervisor in 1984.

More than a quarter-century later, she remembers the Tonka truck she got from Sunset to commemorate the new interchange.

"That is emblematic of Alex," McPeak said. "He does everything first-class. He makes people remember the event."

Sunset executives sent out miniature baseball bats when Mickey Mantle -- who wore No. 7 as a New York Yankees star -- appeared to mark the groundbreaking for the Bishop Ranch 7 office building. In 2002, Sunset Development marked its 50th anniversary by distributing toy Radio Flyer wagons, a throwback to the 1950s.

Bishop Ranch's biggest rival is Hacienda Business Park, a short distance away in Pleasanton. However, the two parks have evolved differently.

With a few major exceptions, notably early property sales from Sunset Development to Chevron and Pacific Bell, Bishop Ranch is owned by Sunset Development.

Hacienda, like Bishop Ranch, was master-planned from the start. But the initial builders of Hacienda sold off numerous pieces to other developers, so no single firm steered its development.

"Bishop Ranch and Hacienda are both wonderful business parks," said Jim Ghielmetti, chief executive officer with Pleasanton-based Signature Properties. "But if you had to give an edge to one, I would say Bishop Ranch has had more continued success than Hacienda."

Yet Bishop Ranch nearly became a park that never was.

Initially, the Mehrans proposed a huge residential subdivision on the site. Masud Mehran, Alex's father, was fresh from success with a 1,260-acre residential development in Livermore called Sunset Town.

San Ramon insisted on offices, not homes. The Mehrans went back to the drawing board and came back with the concept of an office park.

Now, three generations of Mehrans -- Masud, Alex, and Alex's son -- are involved with Sunset, a name Masud picked because he and his wife loved Bay Area sunsets.

"My interest is to continue the legacy of Sunset Development, which my father started in 1951, and to create the best working environment that we can," Alex said. "My destiny was pretty clear to me in terms of doing something I like that would be good for the family."

By George Avalos

Contra Costa Times

Posted: 07/17/2011 07:04:49 PM PDT

Small business trends in office space

Wed, 25 May 2011 14:28:37 -0600

Since its inception in 1981, BR has always provided office space that would accommodate a small business. But back in the '80s, we were growing by leaps and bounds, building larger buildings and leasing space to larger tenants like Chevron, PacBell (now AT&T) and IBM. Our brand and image were solidified with every big tenant we brought in. Bishop Ranch was and is still known as the place for big business.

Fast forward to '04, post-dot com crash, when leasing was still pretty slow, but businesses were starting to recover from the meltdown. BR decided to do a test: What if we took half of a floor in one of our buildings and cut it up into small suites for local businesses? Was there a market for the local entrepreneur who was sick of commuting to San Francisco or Silicon Valley? Would they take an office outside their home, but close enough so they could still coach little league or pick up the kids from school? We were going to find out.

We pre-built suites ranging from 300 square feet to 3,000 square feet, put them on the market and started pounding the pavement. I went door-to-door in San Ramon and its surrounding communities to get the word out that BR wasn't just for the corporate giants. There was room (and really nice space at a good price) for small businesses, too. In just a few months, we'd leased more than15 of these small suites and decided to build more.

Over the next three years, we built and increased our inventory of small space, up from 150,000 square feet to 750,000, of which most is fully leased today. It's been a major success and has changed the landscape of tenants in BR. One of our biggest benefits was staying nimble, not only in the way we built space, but also in the way we leased it. As the owner and manager of the buildings, we could offer tenants greater flexibility. If they outgrew their space, we'd tear up their lease and find them another space as soon as they needed it, not when the lease was finished.

As trends continue to evolve in commercial leasing, we are staying ahead of the curve and adapting to the next "new thing." So where are we today? In 2010 we saw a new need and went even smaller: We created one-person suites that were just 150 square feet. They were move-in ready, furnished, pre-wired for phone and Internet, with access to shared kitchens, conference rooms and lounge areas. This group of small suites leased in just six months (in the worst real estate market in 30 years, mind you).

What's next? We're adapting again. We're building another workplace in one of our newest complexes, BR 3. This time it's a collaborative work space that's dynamic, diverse and fluid. We've included newer and "cool" furniture, shared server rooms and an area to hang out and share ideas—or hatch a new one while surfing the Internet with free WiFi, discussing your business plan with your neighbors in the kitchen or meeting a key new business contact at a Bishop Ranch event that could help grow your company. This is a workplace that creates an informal social interaction and caters to a mobile workforce. So what trend will this recovery bring? We're going to find out.

Bishop Ranch Bog

GE taps Silicon Valley talent for San Ramon site

GE taps Silicon Valley talent for San Ramon site

San Francisco Leads Rent Growth as U.S. Office Vacancy Falls

San Francisco Leads Rent Growth as U.S. Office Vacancy Falls

by Hui-yong Yu of BLOOMBERG

Technology Expansion

Real Estate Deals of the Year. Winner/ Best office lease, suburban: General Electric

PG&E opens new gas-operations center in San Ramon

Strong Leasing Momentum Continues at Bishop Ranch with Black and Veatch Signing a 15,000 Square Foot Lease

Five9 Signs Full-Floor Lease at Bishop Ranch

On-Demand Call Center Software Market Leader to Join GE Global Software Center, lBM, and Other Major Technology Firms at Bishop Ranch, San Ramon, CA

Setting the Bishop Ranch Christmas Tree

Bishop Ranch 2011 Video

Bishop Ranch tenant Lea Journo chosen for the 2011 Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Bishop Ranch Fountains

Bishop Ranch launches leasing referral program

Smart Parents=Smart Kids?

Unemployment rate lower in San Ramon than neighboring communities

Incubator Concept Branching Out to New Industries - Blanca Torres, San Francisco Business Times

Produce and attendance is growing in San Ramon

Location. Location. Location.

Saturday Farmers Market When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday year-round Where: Bishop Ranch 2 parking lot, Bollinger Canyon Road and Sunset Drive.

Thursday Artisan Food Market When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, May through October Where: Southside parking lot Bishop Ranch 3, Bishop Ranch Drive at Camino Ramon.

Sun doesn't set on his vision - By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times

Small business trends in office space

Saturday Farmers Market

When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday year-round

Where: Bishop Ranch 2 parking lot, Bollinger Canyon Road and Sunset Drive.

Thursday Artisan Food Market

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, May through October

Where: Southside parking lot Bishop Ranch 3, Bishop Ranch Drive at Camino Ramon.