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Bay Area industrial demand shifts toward power-ready buildings
JLL estimates 9.5 million square feet of active industrial demand in the Bay Area for space needing at least 4,000 amps of power.
Bay Area industrial real estate is increasingly being shaped by a power availability requirement as AI and robotics companies seek facilities that can support large electrical loads, according to Bisnow. Lenders and investors are focusing on buildings with heavy electrical capacity, treating power-ready space as a core need rather than a differentiator in leasing.
Bisnow highlights a 38,000 square foot building at the corners of Bush and Larkin streets with 4,000 amps of power, a spec that aligns with many AI and robotics tenants. JLL data cited by Bisnow points to about 9.5 million square feet of active Bay Area industrial demand from tenants seeking at least 4,000 amps of power.
BridgeInvest managing partner Alex Horn said in the article that amps are the scarcest resource, not space. He also noted that the firm closed a $53.2 million loan in July to Sterling Organization to reposition a former Fry’s Electronics building in Fremont into a Class A industrial facility with 4,000 amps of power, scalable to 8,000 amps, and that the loan includes a smaller industrial property in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood.
Bisnow further reports that JLL is tracking high-power demand across the Interstate 880 manufacturing corridor of the East Bay and Silicon Valley, and expects power-ready buildings to be a primary driver of rental growth and leasing activity. The article adds that the development pipeline is responding, with 1.9 million square feet of spec space in Silicon Valley and another 700,000 square feet under development or renovation in Oakland.