San Jose Sharks buy Google office by SAP Center for new HQ
Google keeps shedding Bay Area office space, and this time a hockey team is the buyer.
The San Jose Sharks have bought a roughly 22,000-square-foot office building at 450 West Santa Clara Street from Google, taking a downtown asset off one of the Bay Area’s largest corporate shedders and putting it back to work as the team’s headquarters.
Why it matters
Google has spent two years unwinding Bay Area office commitments, and each disposition reprices space that once looked permanently spoken for. Here the buyer is an end user with a specific operational need rather than a speculative investor, which is increasingly how downtown office trades clear in soft markets: a purpose, not a spread. Sharks Sports and Entertainment, which runs about 350 full-time staff, plans to relocate corporate operations across from SAP Center by the end of 2026 and convert its existing arena office space into locker rooms for the team and visitors. For developers, it is a reminder that the most reliable exit for well-located but underused office is an owner-occupier who values location over yield.
The numbers
The building, constructed in 1999, sits directly across from SAP Center, where a $425 million renovation is underway. The price was undisclosed. The team, owned by Hasso Plattner, cited the location across from the arena as the deciding factor after weighing other downtown San Jose options. Recovering the arena square footage for player facilities adds a second layer of value beyond the office move itself.
What’s next
Watch whether more San Jose owner-users step into Google’s vacated footprint, because owner-occupier demand is what will set a floor under downtown values before investors return. More at the San Francisco Bay Area hub.