JDS sells 167,000-square-foot surplus buildingLEASING PROSPECTS IMPROVE AS NEARBY NOKIA FACILITY FILLS
Monday, November 28, 2005
Sonoma-based investors purchased the two-story building at 2789 Giffen Ave. at the west entrance to the campus. The sale price was not disclosed. James and Nancy Hill Derryberry purchased the building Nov. 4, according to Sonoma County public records. Mr. Derryberry also is redeveloping the former Labcon facility at 632 Irwin St. in San Rafael for a 36,000-square-foot Best Buy electronics store. The prospects for attracting tenants to the former JDS building have brightened recently with the rapid leasing of the former 128,000-square-foot Nokia Telecommunications office building nearby at 2235 Mercury Way. San Jose-based telecommunications and optics products developer JDS had the two-story building constructed in 2001, a year after it acquired Santa Rosa-based Optical Coating Laboratories Inc. At the time, OCLI was Sonoma County's fourth-largest private employer with 1,350 full-time and 1,500 total workers in Santa Rosa and was looking to hire more for production. However, the economic slowdown that hit the telecommunications industry hard prompted JDS to start trimming staff companywide. In the past year alone, JDS has cut its Santa Rosa workforce about in half to 550 employees, most of them remaining in the Flex Products specialized ink division and the commercial laser division, according to spokeswoman Jayme Curtis. The latest was 125 layoffs announced Nov. 8 and set to happen in the next 12 months. JDS has had 2789 Giffen on and off the market for lease since it was completed. In the middle of last year, the company decided to consolidate its leased warehouse space around the city into the mostly empty building. Part of the recent building sale included a lease for a portion of it for JDS warehousing, Ms. Curtis said. Haden Ongaro, Sandy Swallow and Brad Yust of Orion Partners brokered the sale of 2789 Giffen.
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