Tech titan spends hundreds of millions to buy East Bay buildings

A tech titan that has been trimming Bay Area jobs has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy several East Bay office buildings.

FREMONT — A tech titan that has been trimming Bay Area jobs has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to buy several office buildings in the East Bay that the company has been leasing.

Lam Research has spent $250 million to buy three buildings in Fremont and two buildings in Livermore, according to documents that were filed on Sept. 22 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office.

The Fremont buildings have addresses of 4300, 4540 and 4650 Cushing Parkway and were bought by Lam Research for a combined $195.8 million, this news organization’s review of the county real estate records shows.

The Livermore buildings are located at 1 Portola Avenue and 101 Portola Avenue and were bought by Lam for a combined $54.2 million, according to the property documents.

In each instance, Lam Research had been leasing the buildings from the seller. MUFG Americas Capital Leasing & Finance sold the buildings to Lam Research, according to the property records.

The just-bought buildings include the 4650 Cushing site that Lam Research is using as its corporate headquarters, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fremont-based Lam Research, which makes equipment used to manufacture semiconductors, had originally sold the buildings to a financial services firm, agreeing to lease back the buildings from the buyer.

Corporations from time to time find it beneficial to sell their buildings as a way to generate cash and then agree to lease the same buildings from the buyers so the companies can continue to operate in the properties.

In 2007, according to regulatory filings by Lam Research and Alameda County records, BNP Paribas Leasing bought office buildings in Fremont and Livermore from Lam and then leased them back.

Over the nearly 17 years during which Lam Research was leasing the buildings, other firms have taken ownership of the five buildings and their adjacent surface parking lots.

BTMU Capital Leasing & Finance was the next owner, buying the five buildings in 2014. Eventually, MUFG Americas Capital Leasing & Finance succeeded BTMU as the owner, ultimately selling the properties back to Lam.

The buildings and surface lots that Lam bought had a combined assessed value of $203.7 million at the end of June, which suggests that the values of the buildings as a group are on the rise.

The Fremont buildings had an assessed value of $153.1 million at the end of June 2023 while the Livermore buildings were valued at $50.6 million, according to documents on file with the Alameda County Assessor’s Office.

Separately, Lam has been trimming tech jobs in the Bay Area, as is the case with numerous high-tech and biotech companies in the nine-county region.

During 2022 and so far in 2023, Lam has revealed decisions to slash a combined total of 561 jobs in Fremont and Livermore, according to official filings with the state government.

Lam’s purchase of the five buildings indicates that the semiconductor equipment maker intends to maintain a rock-solid presence in the Bay Area.