The Genesys of 2002

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc., a subsidiary of Paris, France-based Alcatel, has signed the San Francisco region's biggest office deal yet in 2002. The telecom company will occupy approximately 112,532 square feet on several floors of the Class-A office building known as Pacific Plaza Phase 1. Genesys, which was represented by Andie Katter and Bethany Young of GVA Beitler Commercial Realty in San Francisco, signed a 10-year deal valued at $33 million for the entire 8th and 9th floors, half the 7th and a "tiny bit" on the ground floor of the 9-story, 352,000-square-foot building. According to Katter, who has been representing tenants in the Bay Area for 18 years, Genesys knew what it wanted before it set things in motion. "They said, 'we only want you to approach the landlords for these three buildings,' and sure enough all three hopped to," said Katter. Located at 2001 Junipero Serra Blvd. in Daly City, Pacific Plaza-Phase 1 was completed nearly three months ago and will require extensive tenant improvements. Genesys is still in the process of designing the space, so move-in dates have yet to be determined. The company still occupies approximately 90,000 square feet at 1155 Market St. and will have to buy out the 5-year renewal signed late last year. "They're going to pay a large amount of money", said Zach Siegel of Cushman & Wakefield as he described Genesys' buy-out. However, there was a cancellation clause in the lease renewal that Genesys had signed back in November and "made getting out of the lease easy," said Katter. "This signals that it is a tenants' market right now, and they should really think about negotiating because they have a lot of negotiating power, especially (large corporations) companies like Genesys", added Katter. Siegel represents the landlord at 1155 Market St. and will be listing Genesys' office space with an availability date scheduled for September 2002. Pacific Plaza-Phase 1 is currently 85% leased with asking rates of $33 per square foot, fully serviced. Construction is well under way on Phase 2, the retail component of the park, which is expected to include 40,000 square feet of retail development and restaurants, in addition to a 20-screen cinema complex. Phase 2 is scheduled to be completed May 2002. Phil Tippet of CB Richard Ellis in San Francisco and James Lees, Tim Grant, Aaron Zerbst, and Sandy Rodriguez with the Office Properties Group of CB Richard Ellis in Foster City represented the building owner, Summit Commercial Properties.