By Meghan Hall
Amazon’s rapid growth throughout the East San Francisco Bay Area is continuing well into 2020. The e-commerce giant, according to industry reports, recently agreed to take 388,240 square feet in Milpitas at Bridge Development Partners’ Bridge Point Silicon Valley development in Milpitas. Bridge Development kicked off construction of the 34-acre, 722,040 square foot industrial center at the beginning of the year.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal was the first to report the transaction.
“The Bay Area industrial market is experiencing tremendous demand from technology, e-commerce and logistics users as a result of the demand they’re seeing from consumers for same-and-next-day delivery, explained Greg Woolway, vice president of acquisitions at Bridge Development Partners to The Registry when the firm initially broke ground. “The need for last-mile distribution centers — particularly from the kind of major technology players present in the Bay Area — is only growing. Projects like Bridge Point Silicon Valley are in a unique position to provide best-in-class warehouse space in close proximity to these leading companies.”
At the time of the interview, Bridge admitted to having a lot of interest in the property but had not formally solidified lease negotiations. Thus far, the development is slated to be delivered this year. Upon completion, the campus will be the largest industrial development delivered in the South Bay and Silicon Valley in 2020 and will be one of the largest active developments in Northern California. The two buildings that are part of the development will total 388,000 square feet and 334,000 square feet, respectively.
Amazon’s growth throughout the East Bay has been rapid; according to a first-quarter report issued by CBRE, Amazon alone accounted for 51 percent of all gross leasing activity during the first quarter, inking deals for 1.4 million square feet of space. During the first quarter, Amazon took more than 700,000 square feet at Pacific Commons South in Fremont, owned by Overton Moore Properties. In both the Bridge Point and Pacific Commons Deals, Amazon worked with developers to lease and pave land where other structures were to be built in an effort to establish the centers as last-mile facilities.
In recent months, Amazon has also taken 343,000 square feet at the McCarthy Creekside Industrial Center, also in Milpitas. At the end of 2019, Amazon also agreed to occupy 600,000 square feet at the Longfellow Logistics Center in Livermore, Calif., owned by Orchard Partners. The lease is expected to begin in the coming months. At the time of the transaction, it was the second-largest lease ever signed in the East Bay/Pleasanton industrial market.
