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Big historic South Bay building is bought as office market stays frail

CAMPBELL — A big historic building that once served as a South Bay canning plant has been bought in a deal that points to ongoing weakness in the Bay Area’s feeble office market.

The Cannery office building in Campbell has been bought for $13.5 million, according to documents filed on July 3 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.

BH Properties, a veteran developer based in Los Angeles, used an affiliate to buy the office building at 300 Orchard City Place in Campbell, the county property files show.

Rockwood Capital and Four Corners Properties, through an affiliate, sold the office building to BH Properties, according to the real estate records.

The just-bought structure is a collection of buildings that once were used as a fruit canning plant. The original building on the site was constructed in 1893, according to the LoopNet commercial property database.

The two-story office and retail building totals 98,400 square feet, LoopNet information shows.

The ground floor features the lively Khartoum cocktail lounge.

The deal is a reminder of ongoing weakness in the Bay Area office market.

The $13.5 million that BH Properties paid for The Cannery was 25% below the estimated $18 million value for the office building as of January 2025, according to the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office.

The transaction arrives at a time when a commercial real estate property values have nosedived in numerous instances.

The downturn is so severe that it has hobbled the pace of growth for overall assessed real estate values in Santa Clara County, according to a new official report.

While the annual assessment roll for the county did manage to reach an all-time high of $725.7 billion, the 4.15% rise in values for the 2025-2026 fiscal year marked the slowest annual increase in combined values since 2012, accoring to the annual update.

“The stagnation was largely due to ongoing challenges in the commercial real estate market,” the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office stated.

Waves of slumping values, loan delinquencies, and foreclosures have haunted hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes, and even vacant land throughout the Bay Area, including Santa Clara County.

The Cannery office building has undergone at least one significant renovation, which Rockwood and Four Corners conducted.

Rockwood and Four Corners described The Cannery as a building that offers loft-style workspaces, a marketing brochure states.

“The Cannery is the perfect setting for today’s innovative businesses,” the sellers stated in the brochure. Four Corners and Rockwood added that the revamped office building enabled “history and innovation” to “seamlessly converge.”

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