333 Bush Street | San Francisco
This premier office building site, located in San Francisco’s financial district, was offered for sale while still occupied by a parking garage. Despite there being at least 12 qualified bidders, Grant successfully negotiated the purchase on behalf of Campeau Corporation for $27,000,000. Subsequently, by acquiring both a neighboring parcel and Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) from a significant historic building adjacent to it, Grant assembled a development site that was approved and built with a floor area ratio (FAR) of 18:1. The 42-story tower was one of the first vertical mixed-use projects in California, featuring 8 floors of luxury residential condominiums built atop a 500,000 square foot office tower. The project had a land cost (per square foot of building floor area) less than half of comparable projects in San Francisco at the time. Additionally, Grant recruited and inspired a team of professionals who managed the design, construction, and leasing of this significant San Francisco tower.
Oracle Campus | Redwood Shores
In its previous incarnation, this 63-acre parcel of land was home to Marine World Africa USA, a family-oriented theme park. However, its location was exceptionally attractive for an expanding base of Silicon Valley technology companies. Acquiring ownership was complicated. It involved the formation of a joint venture with a group of San Francisco investors that held a subordinated leasehold mortgage. A provision of the joint venture included an option to purchase the investor group’s interest if we were successful in acquiring fee title to the land. The underlying ground lease included an option to purchase. Grant negotiated the merger of the interests of the lessee with those of both the senior and junior leasehold mortgage lenders. We were thus able to control the right to exercise the purchase option, which we did. In the meantime, we had applied for, and obtained, approval to build more than 1 million square feet of office space on the site. Once the entitlements were secured, we sold the approved - and now vacant - parcel to a partnership between Aetna and the William Wilson Company. This venture built the truly iconic headquarters campus for Oracle Corporation.
Northstar Lodge | Lake Tahoe
Originally developed as the Hyatt Northstar Lodge, the first of three planned phases of this resort opened in 2008 as a vacation club offering fractional ownership interests. However, it did not perform well, and by 2015, the lenders had taken possession of the property. We believed that a different vacation ownership strategy might hold more promise, and we encouraged San Diego-based Welk Resorts to acquire the property. Grant represented Welk in a purchase transaction at a very significant discount to replacement cost. Welk, a highly regarded operator of timeshare resorts, pursued a repositioning of the property and executed that strategy very successfully, building out the remaining two phases of the project almost immediately and expanding the resort from 38 residences to more than 100.
Quito Oaks | Saratoga
Partway through 2020, Grant became aware of a wonderful building site in the prosperous Silicon Valley suburb of Saratoga. The property included about 11.4 acres and was zoned R1-40, a designation permitting single-family homes on lots that are at least 40,000 square feet in area. The land, with a vacant home, had been in the same family’s ownership for nearly 75 years. Although the parcel had not yet been approved for subdivision, it was reported that 18 developers had submitted offers to purchase, but none had been able to reach an agreement with the family matriarch. Whether due to Grant’s persistence, or the Seller’s exasperation with the process, we were successful in reaching an agreement to purchase the land more than 35% below the original asking price. The contract allowed us 32 months to obtain approval of a vesting tentative subdivision map before closing. Grant invited long-time Saratoga custom home builder, Pinn Brothers, into a venture through which Pinn would manage the entitlements as well as the design and construction of the homes. Pinn is building 10 semi-custom homes at prices of $8 million or more; our venture agreement also provides for us marketing of the completed residences.
Limelight Hotel | Mammoth Lakes
In 2019, after an extensive marketing effort, Grant was successful in selling a 7-acre development site in Mammoth Lakes, California, to an affiliate of the Aspen Skiing Company. The new owner plans to build a 151-room Limelight Hotel and 15 residences on the property, immediately adjacent to Mammoth Mountain’s Village Gondola station. This will be the fourth Limelight Hotel to be opened in a year-round mountain resort location.