SAN JOSE — A biotech firm with a global reach has bought a big north San Jose tech building in a deal that shows at least some office buildings can capture higher values even in the face of post-coronavirus economic maladies.
Miltenyi Biotec paid slightly under $34.1 million for an office building near the corner of North First Street and West Plumeria Drive in San Jose, according to documents filed on Oct. 3 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
Germany-based Miltenyi Biotec bought the office and research building at 2825 North First Street through an all-cash deal, the county real estate records show.
A review of property documents shows that the building’s value has increased in recent years. The building totals 51,800 square feet and occupies 3.5 acres, according to commercial property listings and the county Assessor’s Office database.
In early 2019, Miramar Capital, acting through an affiliate, paid $16.3 million for the building, documents filed with the county Recorder’s Office show.
The two price points suggest the north San Jose building’s value has increased 109% — more than double — since early 2019.
The apparent rising value for the office and research building might provide hopeful indicators that some Silicon Valley buildings can maintain or increase their values if they are occupied by tenants with robust business outlooks and operations.
Starting in mid-2022, tech and biotech companies began to slash jobs and sublease office space, twin trends that have coalesced to erode the value of numerous office buildings in the Bay Area.
At the time of the Miramar Capital purchase in 2019, the entire building was leased, as part of a 10-year rental deal, to the biotech company, Miramar stated in a prepared release.
Miltenyi Biotec appears to be in growth mode in Silicon Valley. In 2017, the company was operating at a building on Humboldt Court in Sunnyvale that Google now owns. The biotech firm later shifted its Silicon Valley operations to the north San Jose building.
The just-bought office building, located at 2825 North First Street, serves as a product development center for Miltenyi Biotech, according to the company’s website.
The biotech firm, with offices on three continents, provides products and services that researchers, doctors and scientists can use in basic research, clinical applications and other uses, Miltyeni Biotec states on its website.
The company believes it can participate at multiple levels of the medicine and pharmaceutical industries. In addition to its headquarters in Germany, the company has offices in San Jose, Maryland and China, according to its website.
“Our customers around the world trust Miltenyi as their partner in rolling out new therapies,” the company states on its online site. “Miltenyi helps from early clinical trials to large-scale global operations.”