Tishman Speyer Sells Mountain View Office to Spear Street for $121.5M

Tishman Speyer sold 400 Castro Street, a 138,000-square-foot office building in downtown Mountain View, to Spear Street Capital for $121.5 million, or roughly $876 per square foot, in a deal that closed as one of Tishman’s longest-held Silicon Valley assets.

Why it matters

For a South Florida developer or owner pricing office risk, this is a rare clean read on what a fully stabilized, single-tenant Bay Area building commands today. Tishman built the property in 2002 and leased all of it to law firm Fenwick & West at delivery, which means there is no acquisition basis to measure a gain or loss against, unlike a typical flip. What is measurable is the exit multiple itself: $876 a square foot for a 100 percent leased, LEED Platinum, Class A building near Caltrain is a premium number in a national office market where most trades still clear at a discount to replacement cost. That gap between this deal and the distressed comps dominating office headlines is the real datapoint. Full occupancy and a single, long-tenured credit tenant bought a seller pricing power that half-empty towers do not have. See our national coverage for how that split between trophy and commodity office is playing out elsewhere.

The numbers

The sale price was $121.5 million against 138,000 square feet, or about $876 per square foot. The building was 100 percent leased at closing, anchored by Fenwick & West, which has occupied the space since Tishman delivered it in 2002. Eastdil Secured, led by Nate Jones, represented Tishman Speyer in the sale. Tishman Speyer built rather than bought the asset, so the transaction carries no public acquisition price to compare against the exit; the 24-year hold itself, on a building leased in full from day one, is the basis. It is the third Tishman Speyer capital-markets move we have tracked in two months, after a $450 million listing of 6 Grand Central in New York and a $340 million refinancing of The Franklin in Chicago.

What’s next

Watch Santa Clara County’s recorder for the filed grant deed, which will confirm the recorded price and any financing Spear Street places on the acquisition. Watch also for whether Spear Street holds 400 Castro as a single-tenant income play or looks to re-lease and reposition it once Fenwick & West’s term runs out, a decision that will say more about the buyer’s read on Mountain View office demand than the purchase price does.