endlease Group (LLC.AX) and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google are mutually ending development services deals for four master-planned districts worth $15 billion in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Australian company said on Friday, as developers continue to exit California's real estate market.
Lendlease bagged the contract from Google in 2019 to develop the residential and retail space in Sunnyvale, San Jose and Mountain View, which could ultimately bring around 15,000 new housing units to the region.
California's commercial real estate market is one of the hardest hit globally as remote working has reduced the demand for office space amid declining property values, with companies like Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW.PA), owner of one of San Francisco's biggest shopping centres, also walking away.
Under the project, Lendlease was to develop up to 15 million square feet of residential, retail and hospitality space and Google would develop office space.1
As of June-end, 12,900 of the planned housing units were approved for development in San Jose and Mountain View, according to Google.
A spokesperson said the company is still looking to work with both developers and capital partners to move the Bay Area developments forward.2
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- 1. "We've been optimizing our real estate investments in the Bay Area, and part of that work is looking at a variety of options to move our development projects forward and deliver on our housing commitment," said Alexa Arena, senior director of development at Google.
- 2. Kohn Pedersen Fox, Heatherwick Studio, SHoP, Grimshaw, and several other leading firms had signed design contracts for various aspects of the project. Google will apparently look towards other developers to deliver the planned 15,000-unit housing component of the original deal, though no further construction plans have been announced as of this time. Source: Archinect
