A massive real estate deal in Sunnyvale has brought new hope that the market for commercial office space in Silicon Valley may be starting to rebound after it was totally flipped upside down because of the work from home movement during the pandemic. A large, modern office building that is currently being leased by Nokia has been purchased by a prominent Bay Area real estate firm. 

According to Mercury News, an affiliate of the company ‘GI Partners’ apparently paid $254 million dollars for the recently constructed building at 520 Almanor Avenue which lies in the Peery Park neighborhood of Sunnyvale. Nokia occupies the entire 230,000-square-foot building, which was developed by Lane Partners. 

“We are very pleased to have completed the project and successfully navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. We came out the other side of the pandemic with a great-looking building and a great tenant in Nokia,” Nick Menchel of Lane Partners told Mercury News. The price of the building equates to about $1,100 per square foot, which analysts say shows healthy promise in the prices within the Silicon Valley office space market.

David Sandlin with commercial real estate firm Colliers told Mercury News, “The deal shows that people believe the office market will be back in Silicon Valley. This transaction points to the soundness of the office market in Silicon Valley.” 

According to Silicon Valley Business Journal, the space underneath the building that was sold is owned by Pace Properties and includes a roughly 7,000-square-foot outdoor terrace as well as roughly 4,000 square feet of retail or cafeteria space. So far, it’s unclear whether any possible tenants are lined up for the ground floor spaces.

The Peery Park district in Sunnyvale has experienced a flurry of recent real estate action after three big moves. Apple, along with fellow tech firms Proofpoint and Synopsys are all now leasing large amounts of office space in that area.