SUNNYVALE – Applied Materials has widened its shopping spree for expansion space in Silicon Valley through property purchases in Sunnyvale and office rental deals in Santa Clara.
The tech titan has now spent nearly a quarter billion dollars buying sites in Sunnyvale over four years, which has produced a remarkable buying binge for properties around the company’s Santa Clara headquarters.
In the most recent property purchase, Applied Materials paid $9 million for a small industrial building at 230 Commercial St. in Sunnyvale, according to documents filed May 31 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s office.
Applied Materials has now spent at least $248.7 million to buy an assortment of properties in Sunnyvale.
The maker of equipment that produces semiconductors and displays has turned to sublease deals to expand its footprint in its hometown of Santa Clara.
In recent weeks, Applied Materials has subleased 246,000 square feet of space at 3333 Scott Blvd to Aruba Networks. In Santa Clara, taking that whole office building. In February, Applied Materials subleased 122,000 square feet at 3325 Scott from Palo Alto Networks.
The search for Applied Materials to assemble the properties in Sunnyvale began in August 2018 when the tech firm opened the 928 E. Paid $41.4 million for a building at Arx Avenue.
The largest single deal in Applied purchasing efforts in Sunnyvale occurred in 2019 when the company paid $100.9 million for a technology complex of large office buildings leased to Apple with addresses from 1050 to 1090 E. Arx Avenue.
In the most recent transaction in late May, Applied Materials purchased 230 commercial buildings, totaling about 18,100 square feet, through a cash deal, county documents show.
But as appears to be the case with almost all company property acquisitions in Sunnyvale, the real value of Applied Materials may be the land under the building.
The recently purchased building on Commercial Street sits on a site that totals 2.1 acres, meaning the building is very large for the size of the structure.
It may be possible to use modern-day density rules to construct a building that is 64,000 square feet in total – almost four times the size of the existing building.
In addition, multiple properties purchased by Applied in Sunnyvale can form contiguous sites when woven together into larger parcels.
Several tech companies have attempted to assemble properties in Sunnyvale so that they can expand into the city of South Bay in the future, which is a technology hub.
LinkedIn, Intuitive Surgical, Google, Fortinet, Apple and Amazon, along with Applied Materials, are grabbing Sunnyvale sites for expansion in a number of ways. Amazon mainly has rented offices. Other companies have also bought properties.
