Investors Eye Slice-and-Save Deal for IBM’s Almaden Hillside Giant

A quiet stretch of South San Jose is suddenly on the tour circuit for big-money investors. A group is walking the grounds of IBM’s sprawling Almaden Research Center, weighing whether the 687-acre campus can be carved into a tight industrial core and a large preserved open-space tract. The property, long topped by IBM’s low-profile research campus, includes a developed cluster of offices and labs perched above the Almaden Valley. Whatever investors decide will reshape a sizable swath of habitat and hillside on the city’s southern edge.

Offering documents show the site at 650 Harry Road totals roughly 687 acres, with about 35 acres currently zoned Industrial Park and the rest mapped as open space or habitat, and roughly 544,495 square feet of existing office and R&D buildings. According to marketing materials from Cushman & Wakefield, ownership has signaled the property can be delivered vacant and that sellers may market either the 35-acre Industrial Park parcel or the full campus to buyers. That mix of a small developable core and broad undeveloped slopes is exactly what is drawing investor attention.

Investors Weigh a Two-Part Campus Play

Investors who have toured the site say they are considering a plan that would rezone roughly 35 acres for industrial-park uses and lock in the remaining acreage as open space. As reported by The Mercury News, consultant Erik Schoennauer, who represents the group, told city planners the reuse under review would line up with San José’s Envision 2040 general plan and the site’s industrial-park designation. The concept tries to thread a narrow needle between demand for secure, large-format tech campuses and local pressure to conserve hillside land.

IBM Shifted Teams to the Silicon Valley Lab

IBM has already shifted many Almaden researchers to its Silicon Valley Lab a few miles east at 555 Bailey Avenue, a consolidation first reported last year. IBM’s own lab pages still list the Almaden address at 650 Harry Road, according to IBM Research, while independent coverage has confirmed teams are moving into the Bailey Avenue complex. Hoodline also covered related job filings tied to the company’s moves in late 2025.

What the Land Could Actually Hold

Marketing materials and planning maps highlight a short list of allowable uses on the Industrial Park parcel: data centers, advanced manufacturing, research and development, and modern office space. The Cushman & Wakefield offering notes the IP-zoned acreage is especially appealing to tenants that need large, secure footprints, and it suggests there is potential, with zoning changes, for other uses across the broader campus. That kind of optionality is why both institutional buyers and private investors are circling.

City Rules, CEQA and a Long Paper Trail

Any rezoning, sale or major redevelopment would have to run the gauntlet of San José’s planning process, including public hearings and environmental review under CEQA. Overlay districts and planned development rules will influence how quickly any plan can move forward. As outlined by the City of San José Planning Division, overlay tools can add steps such as additional studies and neighborhood outreach, and historical project files on CEQAnet show the parcel was pre-zoned with a planned development overlay decades ago. Those CEQA and pre-zoning records will be central to how planners and community groups size up any proposal.

Investors say they are still in an early assessment phase and expect to keep digging through due diligence before a formal rezoning or sale application lands at City Hall. As reported by The Mercury News, the group would likely bring specific plans to city planners if negotiations move forward, setting up the coming months as a real test of how San José balances economic reuse with conservation on one of its largest private landholdings.