A 490,000-square-foot tech campus in North San Jose has changed hands for $264.9 million, a price that real estate brokers say ranks among the largest sales of an advanced manufacturing or R&D property in Bay Area history. Los Angeles-based Preylock Holdings closed on the Assembly at North First campus on Tuesday, buying the six-building property from seller Exeter Real Estate Group at a price that exceeds the campus’s latest assessed value by 9.3 percent.
The purchase price works out to well above the $242.3 million assessed value recorded as of January 2026, according to The Mercury News. Exeter had paid $192 million for the property back in 2021, and when the firm brought the campus to market in January, brokers issued pricing guidance of roughly $285 million, or about $582 per square foot, according to The Registry Northern California Real Estate. The final sale landed below that initial ask but still comfortably above the county’s valuation, a sign of how much appetite exists for campuses built around heavy-power infrastructure rather than conventional office space.
Newmark executive David Sandlin said the campus attracted a top-tier investor because of its tenant roster, telling the Mercury News that Assembly at North First has “a strong tenant base of artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and robotics companies.” The property, located near the corner of North First Street and Headquarters Drive with addresses spanning 3940, 3950, 3930 and 4000 North First Street and 90 Headquarters Drive, is currently 100 percent leased, according to sources familiar with the property cited by the same report.
From Chip Plant to Robotics Row
The site’s transformation traces back decades. The former Lam Research campus spans 27 acres, and its buildings were constructed in the 1980s and 1990s. A joint venture of SKS Partners, ProspectHill Group and Invesco Real Estate undertook its redevelopment, with Gensler as project architect, per Bisnow…