EMERYVILLE — A high-profile East Bay office building has been bought in a deal that shows commercial property values in the Bay Area remain locked in a nosedive.
An Emeryville office building at 6001 Shellmound Street has been grabbed by a Bay Area real estate firm in a streamlined foreclosure process, according to documents filed on March 19 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office.
Blox Ventures, acting through an affiliate, bought the office building through a deed in lieu of foreclosure, a speedy way to transfer distressed properties with delinquent loans to a new owner.
The eight-story Emeryville office building totals 109,300 square feet and was built in 1988, according to Compstak, a commercial real estate database.
San Francisco-based Blox Ventures paid $20.6 million for the office building through an all-cash deal, the Alameda County property records show.
That price is 44.6% below the $37.2 million estimated value for the office building as of January 2024, as calculated by the Alameda County Assessor’s Office.
The building is adjacent to the Public Market Emeryville, a popular venue that includes a food court. The public market is under separate ownership.
A real estate group headed up by Colorado-based Everwest Advisors was the seller in the deed in lieu of foreclosure transaction.
Soaring office vacancies, slumping rents, faltering property values and rising numbers of foreclosures have coalesced to haunt the Bay Area office market.
A return to the office that remains in flux, even years after the end of the coronavirus-linked business shutdowns, has impeded efforts by owners of office buildings to swiftly fill up their blocks of space.
As for the just-bought Emeryville office building, the new owner, Blox Ventures, put itself in position to buy the property by paying $6.8 million in January 2025 to buy the property’s loan from PNC Bank.
The Emeryville office building is about 60% occupied. The high vacancy level means Blox could achieve a significant upside through its purchase of the building.
Blox sees plenty of potential in the Emeryville market.
“Emeryville is a leading innovation hub in the Bay Area,” Blox Ventures Chief Exeutive Officer Jason Oberman said at the time the Blox affiliate bought the loan for the building.
Blox noted that several dynamic companies are located in the vicinity of the office building.
“With global leaders like Pixar Animation Studios, Bayer and Novartis, along with the area’s expanding residential offerings, the long-term potential of this property is very promising,” Oberman said.
In recent years, Blox staged a successful turnaround for another big commercial property in the Bay Area.
San Francisco-based Blox Ventures teamed up with New York City-based investment firm Angelo Gordon to buy a mixed-use complex of offices, shops and long-vacant supermarket space in Palo Alto for $78.3 million.
Blox and its partner eventually landed specialty grocer Real Produce International Market to fill the long-empty grocery store space in the complex on El Camino Real.
Buoyed by the leasing success, Blox and Angelo Gordon sold the complex in 2020 for $103.6 million — a profit of 32%.