An artist’s rendering of the planned business park. (Image courtesy of Burlingame.org).
A Chinese-backed investor has paid $47.7 million to acquire a site for a 71,000 square metre (767,000 square foot) business park in the Bay Area city of Burlingame, just south of San Francisco. The buyers of the Burlingame Point project are said to be developing the commercial complex as a US home for Asian companies.
According to reports in the Bay Area media, US private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific was involved in the acquisition, with financial backing from Kylli Inc, a subsidiary of Chinese resort developer Genzon Group.
Genzon made one of the biggest foreign acquisitions of US real estate last year when it bought a landmark office block in San Francisco for $350 million.
Investor Group to Build Base for Asian Firms
According to public records cited in the San Francisco Business Times, a Chinese funded investment group led by US investment firm H&Q Asia Pacific bought the 7.3 hectare (18 acre) site at 300 Airport Boulevard from Millennium Partners.
Millennium had secured approval for the commercial project in 2012, and was advised on the sale by CBRE.
H&Q Asia Pacific, which is led by veteran tech investor Ta-lin Hsu is said to be planning to develop the commercial project for Asian companies looking for a US foothold. The four building complex is approved for office, R&D, retail and restaurant use.
More Northern California Deals for Chinese Developers
The move by H&Q and Genzon to develop an Asian-focused business park came during the same week that Chinese Internet giant Alibaba announced that it had opened its own data centre in Silicon Valley.
These deals represent the latest moves by Chinese investors into northern California’s property market.
China Vanke started the Chinese migration into NoCal through its partnership with Tishman Speyer for the Lumina condo project in San Francisco.
Since then Genzon has made its acquisition of 225 Bush Street in the city by the bay, and Oceanwide Holdings in January announced its own plan to spend $296 million to build a 186,000 square metre (2 million square foot) mixed-use project in San Francisco.
Further inland, Guangzhou R&F – one of China’s ten largest developers – has a $250 million residential project in the works in San Jose, and is said to be planning two San Francisco projects of its own.
Leave a Reply