March 22, 2006
Adobe reportedly in talks to buy lot
S.J. Parcel Called Ideal For Company
Source: The Mercury News
Written by Jon Ann Steinmetz
The last downtown property big enough to support an Adobe-sized office campus may find a familiar buyer: Adobe itself.
Adobe Systems, downtown San Jose’s most visible high-tech company, is in negotiations to buy some or all of a 5.5-acre parcel of land owned by the San Jose Water Co., according to individuals familiar with the talks. The site is across from the HP Pavilion on West Santa Clara Street.
If a deal is consummated, it would set in motion the first new office construction downtown in years, on the only remaining land large enough for multiple towers. And it would surely please the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, which has had limited success luring major technology companies downtown since it gave subsidies for Adobe’s headquarters to the tune of $35 million in the mid-’90s.
“It was awfully fortuitous to subsidize that particular user,” said real estate broker Mark Ritchie of Ritchie Commercial, which specializes in downtown property. “Look at how many companies have come and gone, and Adobe has prospered. It’s one of the all-time Super Bowl rings of RDA performance.”