California’s North Bay is starting to attract more than wine lovers and that draw has earned one recent transaction a CoStar Impact Award for lease of the year for North Bay/Santa Rosa, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
The northern end of California’s Bay Area is mostly known for its world-famous wineries in Napa County; however, the lesser-known city of Fairfield has a growing industrial market that is attracting international companies.
Manufacturing firm Yatai Fabrications, whose parent company Yatai Group is based in China, fully leased a 60,000-square-foot warehouse at 5160 Fulton Dr. The property was subsequently taken over by New York-based Blackstone, along with 335 others, when it absorbed Gramercy Property Trust in a $7.6 billion acquisition.
Fairfield is the largest industrial market in the North Bay and has seen over 3 million square feet of space delivered in the past three years. Just more than that is under construction with 1.7 million square feet pre-leased.
About the Deal: Parent company Yatai Group is no stranger to real estate. The conglomerate also specializes in real estate development in northwestern China. It has invested 3 billion yuan ($417 million) in building a headquarters park in the Lanzhou Zone.
What the Judges Said: "Size of building, type of lease and the location," said William M. Severi, CCIM, CPM, president and chief executive officer, North Bay Property Advisors, wrote the deal deserved recognition because of "size of the building, type of lease and the location."
They Made it Happen: CBRE represented the landlord as part of a team that included Bo Harkins, first vice president at CBRE; Tony Binswanger, executive vice president at CBRE; and Brooks Pedder, vice chairman at CBRE.
CoStar Market Manager Jordan Taylor contributed.