Qualcomm Buys Two Buildings it Occupies

SAN JOSE, CA-Qualcomm, the publicly held San Diego-based maker of wireless computer chips has paid approximately $20 million apiece for two buildings here that had been leasing. Both of the adjacent, 90,240-sf office/R&D buildings were acquired from a JV of ING Clarion and Taylor Corp. In each case, the sale represents a 4.6% cap rate based on the property’s 2007 NOI for the seller, according to an industry source.The two buildings are located near the intersection of Zanker Road and the Montague Expressway. Both are two-story buildings completed in 1984. One of the buildings is located at 2581 Junction Ave., the other at 355-455 E. Trimble Rd.GlobeSt.com reported the sale of the Junction Avenue property last week. At the time, an industry source told GlobeSt.com that the transaction was part of a larger deal but could not provide any additional information. Neither Qualcomm nor the seller’s broker returned phone calls seeking comment on that sale or the newer Trimble Road transaction.

Qualcomm signed a seven-year lease for the Junction Avenue property in 2005 and invested heavily in the building in 2006, building out a wafer fabrication facility. It leased the space for the regional headquarters of Iridigm Display Corp., a handheld-device display specialist it acquired. Additional information on the Trimble Road property was not immediately available.

Ten months ago, in October 2007, Qualcomm paid $80 million for Kifer Corporate Center, a 320,000-sf, four-building low-rise campus in Santa Clara, saying it would use the space to consolidate a couple of its expanding South Bay offices. The seller, LBA Realty, acquired the 22-year-old campus empty in 2005 for approximately $46 million and proceeded to invest additional funds rehabilitating and repositioning the property.