A hush-hush artificial intelligence company has grabbed an entire R&D building at 490 Lakeside Drive in Sunnyvale, signing a full-building lease for roughly 25,038 square feet and turning the single-story property into a single-tenant site. The building was picked up last summer by a partnership that includes Cannae Partners and REALM LP and was refreshed for tech users, a deal brokers say highlights the steady appetite for lab-capable space near core Silicon Valley services.
As reported by Connect CRE, the confidential AI tenant was represented by a team led by Sushma Malhotra of S5 Advisory. On the landlord side, Gregory Davies, Kelly Yoder and Steve Horton of Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction. The lease covers approximately 25,038 square feet, consistent with the building’s marketing as a flex R&D property. The parcel’s listing on JLL shows the same square footage and bills the site as ready for a full build-out.
“We continue to see strong interest from AI and advanced technology users seeking high-quality R&D environments in core Silicon Valley locations,” Davies said, according to Connect CRE. Brokers say repositioned, single-tenant flex buildings like 490 Lakeside are becoming a sweet spot for companies that blend hardware work with compute-heavy AI projects.
R&D Building Gets Silicon Valley Makeover
In a press release from REALM LP, the owners said they acquired 490 Lakeside Drive vacant late last summer and immediately launched a market refresh aimed at modernizing systems and drawing R&D users. The strategy was to bring the older shell up to current expectations for tech and lab tenants before taking it back to market.
Marketing materials from Cushman & Wakefield highlight features such as three glassed-in grade doors, robust backup power and roughly 16-foot clear height. The brochure positions the property for laboratory and light industrial uses, with enough flexibility to accommodate both bench work and light manufacturing.
What the AI Lease Signals for Sunnyvale
Landing an AI tenant for an entire building fits a broader local pattern. Hoodline recently covered Pinterest planting its AI flag in Sunnyvale, one of several examples of tech firms shifting space into transit-friendly downtowns and nearby commercial corridors.
As CoStar has reported, owners and brokers are repositioning smaller R&D buildings across Silicon Valley to catch demand from model-training and hardware-focused teams that want single-tenant control and secure facilities.
Financial terms of the 490 Lakeside deal were not disclosed, and the tenant’s name remains confidential in public coverage, according to CoStar. The JLL listing marks the 25,038-square-foot space as available for immediate build-out, suggesting the owner has already teed up the asset for relatively quick occupancy once tenant improvements are complete.
No move-in timeline or rental rates were reported alongside the leasing announcement. Brokers say single-tenant R&D deals of this size can ripple through nearby retail and services by restoring weekday foot traffic to Sunnyvale’s commercial corridors, even if the name on the lab door stays under wraps a little longer.
