Source: Oakland Tribune, July 13, 2004

Ask Jeeves may finally be coming to Oakland. The Internet search company is taking 50,000 square feet of space in Oakland’s 555 City Center office building, according to commercial real estate brokers.

The company will occupy the fourth, fifth and ground floors of the office building in a lease signed late last week, said brokers at CB Richard Ellis.

Matt Elmquist, principal broker of Aegis Realty Partners who is said to have brokered the deal, said he does not confirm deals he handles for his clients.

Ask Jeeves currently occupies 76,000 square feet at Emeryville Station in Emeryville and was looking at subleasing out 20,000 square feet at the location in 2001 and 2002 during a consolidation plan. It appears that space was never subleased. The lease expires in January 2005.

Ask Jeeves was initially going to be the marquee tenant of 555 City Center. In June 2000, it signed a 10-year, $80 million lease for seven floors of the 20-story building. But after big losses and layoffs, Jeeves agreed in February 2002 to pay owner Shorenstein Co. $16 million to terminate its 159,000-square-foot City Center lease.

Now, the company, which has been on a roll for more than a year, is likely getting back some of that money from the building’s owner in order to go to Oakland, according to a person familiar with the deal.

Larry Westland, senior vice president of TRI Commercial in Oakland, said that if the rumored deal is true, then it represents very positive news for Oakland and Shorenstein Co.

“The Shorenstein Co. has been very aggressive with their base rents and tenant improvements to fill up their building in a down market, and they are to be applauded for those deals,” Westland said.

Recent monthly leases at the building have totaled $2.50 to $2.70 per square foot, which is less than the $3.25 to $3.50 per square foot Shorenstein had originally hoped to get when the building opened in 2002, he added.

The $100 million skyscraper opened with one floor leased but is now three-fourths full. If the Ask Jeeves deal pans out, it would be Oakland’s largest office lease since Matson Navigation took over 50,000 square feet last year, also in 555 City Center. The large space in 555 City Center would essentially now be full, Westland said.

By Nicholas Yulico, BUSINESS WRITER – Oakland Tribune