An old General Electric transformer manufacturing plant that was redeveloped as one of the Bay Area's biggest industrial properties is now for sale after failing to gain traction among tenants, reflecting a broader industry downturn that has rippled across the nation.
Bridge Point Oakland, a 534,242-square-foot industrial building, opened in 2023 as the East Bay industrial market screeched to a halt. It was echoing a bigger-picture slowdown as interest rates rose and tech giants downsized.
The slowdown continues at the end of 2025, a year weighed down by lower throughput at the Port of Oakland, competition from larger and more economical distribution hubs in Sacramento and the Central Valley, and sluggish employment gains.
Cushman & Wakefield has the listing for Bridge Point Oakland, which appears to be fully vacant, according to CoStar data.
The owner, Bridge Development Partners, purchased the 23-acre site — home to a more-than-century-old General Electric plant — in 2019 for $37.85 million and spent millions more transforming the property into a state-of-the-art logistics warehouse. Bridge moved forward without a major tenant lined up, betting on the soaring demand at the time for industrial space driven by e-commerce giants such as Amazon.
The Chicago-based firm did not respond to a request from CoStar News for comment. But its move to put the property on the market reflects the rapid cooling of the industrial real estate market in the Bay Area and nationwide.
The U.S. industrial vacancy rate has increased steadily for nearly three years and now stands at 7.5%, according to CoStar’s national industrial report published this fall. The soft market — complicated by millions of square feet of new warehouse space — has shifted negotiating leverage to tenants and caused quarterly rent growth to stall.
'Chernobyl of East Oakland'
GE had developed the facility in 1922 and operated at the site for about 70 years prior to being shut down in 2005, according to records cited at the time of the redevelopment.
After purchasing the property, Bridge worked with the city and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up toxic chemicals as well as with the Oakland Cultural Heritage Society to preserve historic details such as the original red brick façade on part of the building, records show. The San Francisco Business Times reported last year that the $91.6 million redevelopment required in-depth studies, mitigation and an environmental impact report before Bridge could even break ground.
The Oakland Heritage Alliance referred to the historic but contaminated site in a 2017 story in the East Bay Express as “the Chernobyl of East Oakland, and a permanent reminder of industrial toxicity.”
Oaklanders at the time had batted around the possibility of building a solar-energy farm at the site or turning it into a park. But by the late 2010s, the Bay Area's tech boom and firms' rising demand for logistics space closer to their customers made the industrial area around the Oakland Coliseum a promising location for a sprawling logistics site.
At the 2020 groundbreaking for the redevelopment project, Bridge Vice President Greg Woolway called it "the single largest industrial development in the Bay Area," saying it would deliver "a state-of-the-art industrial facility to the City of Oakland."
He acknowledged that the unexpected onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had created "some unprecedented challenges" but said he was confident the facility represented "a critical piece of infrastructure in a rapidly growing city and region that is in need of new industrial supply."
The facility has modern features including 36-foot clear heights to maximize storage density and four access points to facilitate vehicles moving in and out without creating congestion.
Post-pandemic reset?
Bridge's portfolio encompasses properties across the country and in Europe. It acquires, develops and operates logistics real estate in supply-constrained markets, according to its website. It's building a 714,491-square-foot industrial campus in San Jose that's scheduled to be completed in March. Its Bridge Point Silicon Valley facility in Milpitas is leased to Amazon.
Leasing activity in the East Bay’s industrial market has remained quiet in the fourth quarter. With more tenants leaving than arriving, the overall vacancy rate has climbed to 9.3%. However, some experts have predicted that the market could begin to stabilize in 2026, particularly as tenants favor state-of-the-art facilities.
“The Bay Area industrial market is in the final phase of a post-pandemic reset,” veteran East Bay industrial broker Kevin Hatcher of Newmark told CoStar last month. “The region’s dominant technology sector continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience, and new industrial supply is rapidly diminishing as construction starts have tapered off.”