After writing about Ridgeview Hope Church last week, I was struck by the number of different uses within the sprawling 860-acre park. Originally, it was just a business park, but, as the economy shifted and slowed, the developers successfully were able to change zoning on some parcels to residential, single family homes, apartments and condominiums. The last rezonings, driven by the settlement of a law suit because the city was not meeting its housing obligations under state law, launched four other multi-family complexes.
James Paxson, the long-time general manager of the owner’s association, reported that there are 2,603 residential units approved in the park of which 2,299 have been built. Two-thirds are rental units, while 730 are owner-occupied.
As the economy has waxed and waned over the nearly 40-year history, land uses within the park have shifted. For instance, the complex of five-story buildings now known as Rosewood Commons started out as the Western Regional Headquarters of AT&T back in the 1980s. It’s now home to a variety of companies that include Ellie Mae and Allergan (formerly Zeltiq which developed the CoolSculture Technology). That’s a home-grown Hacienda success story with Zeltiq starting in another building and then moving to Rosewood Commons.
I asked James about other churches in the business park, having observed a few while driving around. He reported the following: Bay Area Peace Evangelical Church, Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services, Crosspoint Church, Muslim Community Center - East Bay, Ridgeview Hope Church and the Tri-Valley Presbyterian Church.
When it comes to schools and other services for children, the business park abounds in them. The public Hart Middle School is the poster child, but there are 20 other tenants serving children with childcare, preschool, tutoring and education.
So then mix in Veeva Systems, a cloud-based software company serving pharmaceutical and life science companies. It’s on target to be a $1 billion company this year from its headquarters on Stoneridge Drive. You can add in Roche Molecular Systems (a multi-national firm with a major Hacienda presence) BioRad Laboratory and NeoTract and that’s just a sampling of life science companies in the park.
What’s striking is the diversity of firms that range from churches and schools that cannot pay top dollar for facilities and got in when the market was flat to major international companies and start-ups. The life science start-ups, that need both lab and office space, have found rents in Pleasanton very helpful.
