Hamilton Landing office complex sale in Novato part of huge Marin deal wave

A Portland, Ore.-based investment fund just purchased the 405,000-square-foot Hamilton Landing redevelopment of former aircraft hangars into trendy high-end office space in Novato, but that's just part of recent string Marin County deals totaling millions of square feet.

The purchase in mid-July by a fund managed by ScanlanKemperBard Companies is part more than 2 million square feet of local offices already sold or about to close escrow over roughly a year and a half, according to Haden Ongaro, head of Newmark Cornish & Carey's North Bay commercial real estate brokerage. He and agents Brian Eisberg and Mark Carrington were leasing the property for the previous owner, Hamilton Marin, LLC, and will continue to do so for the new owner.

The sale value recorded on the deed was $84 million.

'It's unprecedented how many deals that have closed or will close,' Ongaro said.

About 1.6 million square feet were sold from BioMarin Pharmaceutical's purchase of its San Rafael campus in early 2014 through the Hamilton Landing deal, he said. Most recently, 89,000-square-foot Woodside Office Center in Novato sold on July 9 for $16.25 million and 143,000-square-foot 75–88 Rowland Way on June 5 also in Novato for $24.9 million. Sales are pending on about 300,000 square feet of space 100 Wood Hollow Dr. in Novato and 1650 Los Gamos Dr. in San Rafael.

Hamilton Landing was 93 percent leased when sold. Large tenants are Take-Two Interactive, Raptor Pharmaceutical, Activision-Blizzard, Meritage Medical Network, EDG Interior Design and YMCA.

Occupancy rose in the past four months from 85 percent, thanks to 18,500 square feet leased to Worldwise, moving from San Rafael, 8,700 square feet to Verb Ventures, 5,300 square feet to ET Water Systems and 3,800 square feet to On My Side.

Novato was the most active Marin office leasing market in the first half of this year, with 52,600 square feet of net absorption — space on the market, less space not, according to Newmark Cornish & Carey. Yet the city had the county's highest vacancy rate, at nearly 26.46 percent of 1.89 million square feet, at mid-year, the brokerage estimated. That's largely because of current availabilities at the 773,000-square-foot Novato campus of Allianz, formerly Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., which plans to relocate to Petaluma late this year.

With the existing renovated Hamiton Landing buildings comes land with entitlements to build a 54,000-square-foot office building. If a deal comes to fruition with a prospective tenant interested in leasing 20,000 square feet there, the building could proceed to construction, Ongaro said.