Four Bay Area Buildings Went Back to Lenders in 48 Hours

The Registry, Sept 16–17, 2026; The Real Deal, Sept 16–17, 2026; Hoodline, Sept 16, 2026; Commercial Real Estate Direct, Sept 17, 2026; Connect CRE, Sept 17, 2026 — Tag: Office / Life Science / Distress / Bay Area

Key Highlights

• Phelan Building, 760 Market St., San Francisco: 299,549 sf, Figma headquarters anchor (98K-sf renewal in 2024); Newmark is marketing the note with $140M guidance (~$467/sf) against a $374M sale in 2016 — roughly 63% below. Single-origin (The Registry).
• 410–430 N. Mary Ave., Sunnyvale: $209M single-asset CMBS loan (NCMS 2021-APPL) on a 350,000-sf campus 100% leased to Apple through July 2030; matured August 2026; transferred to special servicing (Morningstar Credit via Connect CRE; The Registry).
• 580 Dubuque Ave., South San Francisco (IQHQ Spur Phase 1): 330,000-sf lab tower completed 2025, never occupied; deed-in-lieu to an Apollo affiliate against a $275M loan (The Real Deal).
• 1333 Broadway, Oakland: Libertas Cos. took title at the $58.1M unpaid balance (~$238/sf) vs Swift Real Estate's $115M purchase in 2019; lender China Construction Group; Delta Dental occupies more than half; downtown Oakland vacancy ~26%.

The Signal

• Four resolutions, four channels: note sale, special servicing, deed-in-lieu, lender-basis purchase.
• Tenant credit is not saving loans — a campus 100% leased to Apple could not refinance because the lease ends in 2030.
• Oakland's Measure FF, on the November ballot, would tax exactly these lender transfers.

Between the evening of Sept 16 and Sept 17, four Bay Area assets moved into lender hands or lender-driven sales. None is a failed-tenancy story — Figma, Apple and Delta Dental are all in place. It is a maturity-and-basis story.

Phelan: Newmark is marketing the debt with $140M guidance against a $374M sale in 2016, a 63% markdown on a fully tradeable Union Square landmark with a marquee anchor. The report is single-origin, so treat the guidance as indicative until a second source or a closing prints.

Sunnyvale: a 2021 single-asset securitization on a campus Apple occupies entirely defaulted at its August maturity. The leases run to July 2030. With under four years of term, lenders sized to expiry rather than to the tenant's balance sheet — and the loan did not clear.

South San Francisco: IQHQ handed a 330,000-sf, never-occupied lab tower to Apollo against a $275M loan, with Bay Area lab vacancy above 30% and second-quarter asking rents down to $66/sf. Two years after the peak, speculative lab is still being written to loan basis.

Oakland: Libertas, a Portland value-add buyer, stepped in at the $58.1M loan balance — half the 2019 price — calling downtown Oakland an overcorrection. If Measure FF passes in November, the transfer-tax exemption for lender takebacks closes (2.5% top rate above $5M), changing the math on the next deed-in-lieu in the East Bay.

Implications

The Bay Area recovery narrative — AI leasing, the Figma renewal, Airbnb's new 100K-sf lease — coexists with lender exits on 2016–2021 vintage basis; both are true at once. For lenders on single-tenant tech campuses, remaining lease term is now the binding constraint, not tenant rating. For value buyers, entry basis is being set at the loan balance: about $238/sf in Oakland and roughly $467/sf on the San Francisco note.

In the Bay Area this week the tenant stayed and the owner left — basis, not occupancy, decided who keeps the keys.