PALO ALTO — An eight-decade-old retail building in downtown Palo Alto has been bought by a Bay Area real estate firm in a deal that points to ongoing interest in prime commercial sites in the Silicon Valley tech hub.
Constructed in 1938, the just-bought building is located at 384 University Ave. next to Waverly Street in one of the prime sections of downtown Palo Alto.
Big Property Ventures, acting through an affiliate, paid $17.2 million for the building, which is at the corner of University Avenue and Waverly Street, according to documents filed on Aug. 8 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
The San Carlos-based buying group also obtained a loan of up to $17.1 million from Prime Finance Short Term Duration at the time of the purchase, the county property records show.
The principal executives with Big Property Ventures are Bryan Baskin, Brooks Baskin and Jim Baskin, according to the real estate company’s website. Big Property Ventures is affiliated with Baskin Investment Group.
The principal tenants in the downtown Palo Alto building are Chico’s, a women’s clothing merchant; and Letter Perfect, an eco-conscious stationery retailer.
Palo Alto-based Rapp Development, whose principal executives are listed on its website as Roxy Rapp and Chase Rapp sold the building to the Big Property affiliate.
Rapp Development states on its site that the real estate firm undertook a “historic renovation” of the structure, which is also known as the Decker Oaks building, in 1983.
A few weeks ago, on July 8, a group headed up by veteran local developer Peter Pau bought a building at 281 University Ave. for $10 million in cash.
The 281 University building’s primary tenant is Restoration Hardware, although the retailer intends to vacate the site to open a flagship store at Stanford Shopping Center by the end of this year.
“Peter (Pau) is very bullish about downtown Palo Alto and about re-tenanting the building,” David Taxin, a partner with Meacham/Oppenheimer, a commercial real estate firm, said in comments regarding the 281 University deal.
These property purchases on University Avenue are occurring at a time when downtown Palo Alto is attempting to heal from economic woes unleashed by coronavirus-linked business shutdowns that state and local government agencies orchestrated to combat the deadly bug.
“Downtown Palo Alto has been seeing its issues, like every other downtown” in the wake of the coronavirus, Taxin said. Virtually all of the downtowns in the Bay Area and California are struggling to regain their economic footing in the COVID aftermath.
The new ownership group for the just-purchased 384 University retail building states on its website that it’s a veteran in the local real estate scene.
“Baskin Investment Group specializes in the acquisition, development, repositioning and management of unique properties in the San Francisco Bay Area,” the company said.
That experience time frame stretches back 50 years, Baskin Investment said.
“Our principals bring extensive local market knowledge and a passion for developing properties that transform communities,” the Baskin firm stated.
