There are a variety of types of buildings in the 860-acre business park, but only one large warehouse on Hacienda Drive.
That prompted an email to veteran commercial real estate broker Mark Triska about how many square feet Telsa and Amazon are leasing in the valley. Triska tapped researcher Lisa Kohler in his Collier’s office and she provided the following numbers.
For several years, Tesla has leased a big warehouse right off the Highway 84/Isabel Avenue corridor in Livermore at 201 Discovery Drive (635,533 square feet). The company has two other Livermore leases, the largest of which is 367,734 square feet is also along the Isabel corridor. The company is leasing 1,284,170 square feet and that’s only direct Tesla leases and doesn’t include other suppliers.
Amazon made some headlines last year when it purchased 58.5 acres next to the Pleasanton Garbage transfer station that potentially could be a last-mile distribution warehouse. It also is leasing another 813,920 square feet of space including the former Circuit City warehouse in Livermore that totals 612,300 square feet.
Quite a footprint at more than 2.1 million square feet for the two firms.
With elected officials faced with running in redrawn districts after the 2020 Census, there have been a number of resignations or retirement announcements coming out of both Sacramento and Washington D.C.
One of the more notable one was Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego who will take over the California Labor Federations in July when its long-time leader retires. Gonzalez has been a power player in the Assembly since her election in 2013 and has been organized labor’s leading advocate in the state Capitol.
She was the driving force in trying to destroy the gig culture by mandating that companies pay casual workers as employees instead of independent contractors. She maneuvered AB 5 through the Democrat-dominated Legislature and it threatened to upend businesses ranging from giants such as Uber and Lyft to freelance writers, court reporters and newspaper delivery drivers.
Remember, the No. 1 donors to Democrat candidates are various unions, particularly the public employee unions.
Some provisions were held off for a year while the Legislature passed a clean-up bill that clarified some provisions and impacts on some industries. It’s notable that among the independent contractors that were exempted from the start were the powerful real estate industry and its brokers— significant donors to both parties.
The big companies partnered together to successfully pass an initiative that exempted their workers, while others have struggled to adjust.
Meanwhile Gonzalez, who worked as a union organizer before winning the Assembly election, returns to her roots with one of the most powerful union consortiums in the state. Instead of one vote and influence in the Legislature, her clout will grow in the new position as Democrats strive—nationally and statewide—to increase union membership that has been falling in the private sector for decades.
