Cryptocurrency company Okcoin will move into an office tower at 160 West Santa Clara St. in downtown San Jose, as reported by The Mercury News. The building is owned by Century | Urban.
Okcoin’s lease accounts for just under 35K SF in the 15-story building, across the 12th and 14th floors, which are connected, according to The Real Deal.
The move will be a boon to San Jose’s beleaguered office market, which has been plagued by its highest rate of vacancy since the Great Recession, hitting 15.2% total vacancy in the first quarter of this year, according to a report from JLL.
However, the report also noted that there may be signs of life on the horizon. Nearly 400K SF of leasing activity was recorded in Q1 of this year, which more than doubled the activity since Q1 2021. While markets such as Santa Clara and Downtown San Jose struggled with total vacancy, other Silicon Valley markets such as Mountain View, Cupertino and Sunnyvale, have fared much better, seeing total vacancy rates of 5.1%, 4% and 13.8%, respectively, in Q1 of this year.
Okcoin signed a seven-year lease agreement, brokered by Cushman & Wakefield’s Brandon Bain, Jeff Cushman and Alex Lagemann for landlord Century | Urban. Savills’ Mike Mordaunt, Chris Errecart and Janet Kuang brokered the deal for the tenant.
Its San Francisco offices are currently located at 150 Spear St. in San Francisco’s Financial District and The Real Deal reports it has already begun moving into its new space. Okcoin has not said if it is vacating that property in full and officially moving its HQ, but its space on Spear Street is now listed for lease by CBRE, as first reported by TRD.
Its departure would be another blow to the Financial District, which JLL reports has already seen huge hits to its total office vacancy, clocking in at 21.6% and 16.9% in the North and South Financial Districts, respectively, in the first quarter of this year. The move also comes on the heels of Elon Musk’s agreed buyout of Twitter, which has the (perhaps limited) potential to see the Mid-Market HQ relocate out of the Golden State and into Texas.
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