By Jon Peterson
Opera Software, with existing space in San Mateo, Mountain View and San Francisco, has expanded in the mid-Peninsula city by taking an additional 17,702 square feet of space in an office building at 1875 South Grant Street.
“We had decided that we needed to expand into more space. Since some of our employees live in San Francisco and some in Silicon Valley, we felt that the property in San Mateo would allow our employees to commute to this office location from either direction. This was an important factor for us.” says Mahi de Silva, chief executive officer of Opera Mediaworks, a subsidiary of Opera Software.
According to recently-released data from Colliers International, the vacancy rate in the San Francisco peninsula continues a downward trend. Mike Cobb, a senior vice president in its Redwood City office noted in his blog post that the greater Peninsula ended the third quarter at 11.68 percent vacancy, which was slightly better than the results from a year ago at 11.83 percent. Overall, in San Mateo county, the vacancy is at 12.73 percent
Gross absorption, a measure of leasing activity, also continued to show improvements with 1.165 million square feet recorded on the Peninsula in the third quarter of 2013, he added.
For Opera, which will maintain its global headquarters in Norway, the important aspects of the expansion were proximity to major transportation thoroughfares and its location. “Being near transportations hubs was a factor, as well. This building is near Highways 92 and 101 and is close to a Caltrain stop. This new space will be used as our headquarters for our operations in the United States,” de Silva added.
The tenant worked on the lease through its broker, Kristoph Lodge, a senior vice president with Cornish & Carey Newmark Knight Frank in its Palo Alto office. Opera and Lodge would not comment on the lease terms.
Opera is going through a major growth for its office and employee needs. The company’s office space in the United States has gone from 20,000 square feet a year ago to 60,000 square feet now. The firm and its subsidiaries now employ 200 employees in the Silicon Valley. This is up double from the same time last year. This number is projected to reach 300 employees sometime in 2014.
The property at 1875 South Grant is an 11-story office building. Opera had been in the 7th floor of the property. The new lease is for the 10th floor. It now occupies a total of 35,404 square feet in the asset. The property is owned by a partnership controlled by Osborn Capital.
Opera’s other San Francisco Bay Area offices are located at 594 Howard Street in San Francisco and 799 East Evelyn Avenue in Mountain View.
Opera is a software product company that serves the internet industry on a worldwide basis. It’s a publicly traded company that is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA.
