Tech titan widens real estate shopping spree to grab Bay Area properties

SUNNYVALE — A tech titan has widened its shopping spree for Bay Area real estate by purchasing a nondescript building in the South Bay, a buying binge that is now well over a quarter-billion dollars.

Applied Materials paid $15 million to buy an industrial and warehouse building in Sunnyvale, according to documents filed on April 9 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.

The building is located at 222 Commercial Street in Sunnyvale and totals 24,000 square feet, according to the Loopnet commercial property listing service.

Santa Clara-based Applied Materials has collected numerous properties in Sunnyvale in recent years.

The semiconductor equipment maker’s property purchases in Sunnyvale are all relatively near the company’s headquarters on Bowers Avenue in Santa Clara.

Including the most recent acquisition, Applied Materials has paid $296.4 million to buy an assortment of properties in Sunnyvale.

The maker of equipment to produce semiconductors and displays has also turned to sublease deals to expand its footprint in its hometown of Santa Clara.

Applied Materials has subleased 246,000 square feet of space from Aruba Networks at 3333 Scott Blvd. in Santa Clara, taking that entire office building. The company also has subleased 122,000 square feet at 3325 Scott Blvd. from Palo Alto Networks.

The quest by Applied Materials to collect properties in Sunnyvale began in August 2018, when it bought a building at 928 East Arques Avenue.

The deals are a reminder that the companies that make up the Silicon Valley economy never march in lockstep.

The largest single deal in the Applied purchasing efforts in Sunnyvale occurred in 2019 when the company paid $100.9 million for a tech campus of big office buildings leased to Apple with addresses ranging from 1050 through 1090 East Arques.

More property purchases could be in the works, county documents show.

In July 2023, Applied Materials disclosed that it had struck a deal to buy the shuttered Fry’s Electronics site at 1077 East Arques, based on public records on file with county officials. However, as of early April, that deal had yet to be completed.

The Sunnyvale property purchases could be poised to bolster the company’s plans for a huge new tech complex that Applied Materials is planning.

The future Applied Materials complex is known as the Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization Center.