A busy Safeway-anchored shopping center near Interstate 680 in Pleasanton has changed hands for $79.1 million, landing well below its prior assessed value even as the property sits nearly fully leased with a roster of national tenants and a sky-high median income in the surrounding neighborhood.
An affiliate of Sterling Organization purchased Pleasanton Gateway Shopping Center, with the purchase documents filed with the Alameda County Recorder's Office on October 1, according to The Mercury News. The Alameda County Auditor-Controller/Clerk-Recorder's office serves as the official keeper of the county's real property records, indexing and preserving documents like deeds once they are accepted for recording, according to the Alameda County Auditor-Controller/Clerk-Recorder.
The shopping center sits near the signalized Bernal Avenue interchange with Interstate 680, a heavily trafficked corner that Sterling Organization's own property listing describes as central to the asset's appeal. The Mercury News reported the center's total area at 128,300 square feet, while Sterling Organization's property page lists it as 128,275 square feet — a discrepancy the two sources did not reconcile.
A High-Performing Anchor With a Deep Bench of Tenants
Safeway anchors the center at 6790 Bernal Avenue in a 59,300-square-foot store, with Sterling Organization describing the grocer as a high-performing supermarket on its property page. CVS serves as the center's secondary anchor in a 14,000-square-foot space, rounding out a tenant mix that, per the Mercury News report, also includes Wells Fargo, Mike's Bikes, Bagel Street Cafe, Taqueria Extra, Parktown Pizza, Club Pilates, The Habit Burger Grill, Sourdough & Co., Panda Express, Great Clips and Poke House, with BMO and Face Foundrie listed as coming soon as of the Mercury News report's publication.
Pleasanton Gateway Shopping Center was 99 percent leased at the time of the sale, according to shoppingcenterbusiness.com, a figure the Mercury News similarly characterized as nearly all spaces leased. The property also benefits from an affluent customer base, with Sterling Organization's listing citing an average household income of nearly $260,000 within a three-mile radius.
Bought Below Assessed Value
The Pleasanton property carried an assessed value of $94 million as of January 2026, and the $79.1 million purchase price came in 15.9 percent below that figure, per the Mercury News report. That discount stands out against a broader pattern the same outlet has tracked elsewhere in the region: Gateway Centre in San Ramon, a 112,600-square-foot center anchored by Lucky and Dollar Tree, sold for $47.8 million in April to an affiliate linked to Bay Area real estate executive Bill Poland — a price that was 8.6 percent higher than its $44 million assessed value, the station's report noted. Investors have displayed hearty appetites for some East Bay and South Bay neighborhood shopping centers over the past year, according to the same outlet's earlier coverage.
Office and industrial vacancy data from the Tri-Valley submarket offer additional context for the area's commercial real estate climate. Pleasanton's office vacancy rate closed the second quarter of 2026 at 21.5 percent, up 80 basis points from the prior quarter but down 10 basis points year over year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The same report put the Tri-Valley industrial vacancy rate at 9.5 percent for the quarter, down 170 basis points from the previous quarter but up 130 basis points year over year.
Part of a Growing Grocery-Anchored Portfolio
The Pleasanton acquisition was not a standalone deal. It came as part of a three-property portfolio totaling 277,057 square feet across California and Hawaii, acquired on behalf of Sterling United Properties, the company's grocery-anchored shopping center fund series, according to the shoppingcenterbusiness.com report.
Sterling Organization, based in Florida, has been steadily building out its Bay Area footprint. In January, the firm acquired Slatten Ranch Shopping Center in Antioch for $31 million — an 118,187-square-foot retail center shadow-anchored by a 142,000-square-foot Target that was 72 percent occupied at the time, with Sterling stating its goal of reaching full occupancy during its hold period. The Mercury News report also lists Sterling Organization as owner of Fremont Town Center in Fremont, Rossmoor Shopping Center in Walnut Creek, a Safeway-anchored center in downtown Burlingame, Paradise Valley Plaza in Fairfield, Bridgepointe Shopping Center in San Mateo, and two additional shopping centers in San Francisco.
In Fremont, Sterling Organization is also attempting to transform a former Fry's Electronics store at 43800 Osgood Road into a warehouse or advanced manufacturing hub, per the Mercury News report, signaling the company's interest extends beyond traditional grocery-anchored retail into repositioning big-box space for industrial use.
