Applied Materials buys Sunnyvale Retail Site for $100M

Applied Materials has gobbled up a former Fry’s Electronics store in Sunnyvale as part of a real estate buying binge backed by more than $390 million.

The Santa Clara-based semiconductor equipment manufacturer paid $100 million for the 152,300-square-foot, big-box property at 1077 East Arques Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The seller was the family of the late Robert Wise, director of “The Sound of Music,” according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal, which reported on a pending deal in September of last year.

The deal for the 13.6-acre site works out to $657 per square foot, or $7.35 million an acre.

The property was assessed by Santa Clara County with a value just over $20 million, or $131 per square foot.

The acquisition is the latest by Applied, which since 2018 has spent $396.4 million for numerous properties along a four-mile stretch near Central Expressway in east Sunnyvale and north Santa Clara, including the former Fry’s purchase.

The equipment maker as of last year owned or leased more than 2 million square feet across more than two dozen buildings, according to the Business Journal.

In 2019, Applied Materials paid $100.9 million for a tech campus then leased to Apple between 1050 and 1090 East Arques.

The firm plans to assemble its Sunnyvale holdings into a new Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization Center, according to the Mercury News.

Its purchase of the former Fry’s Electronics is the latest since the San Jose-based electronics retail chain shut down in early 2021, shuttering 31 stores in nine states after failing to meet the challenge posed by online commerce.

This week, the Florida-based Sterling Organization filed plans to turn a former Fry’s Electronics store in Fremont into a site for manufacturing and tech research.

In June, an affiliate of the West Palm Beach-based firm bought the former Fry’s building once packed with computer hard drives and big-screen TVs for $35.7 million, or $248 per square foot.

In February, the locally based Super Micro Computer paid $80 million for the former headquarters of Fry’s Electronics in North San Jose, approved for redevelopment into a 1.9 million-square-foot office campus.

— Dana Bartholomew