Nokia Corporation (NOK)

[Eric]

Nokia's New Silicon Valley Digs ...

... are located in a 156,000-square-feet five-story building in Sunnyvale California in the Sunnyvale Town Center located at 200 Mathilda Avenue at the intersection of Mathilda and Washington avenues. Nokia is the complexes sole tenant. The new Silicon Valley headquarters for Nokia is part of a redevelopment project in Sunnyvale, that was stalled for years. City officials expect that Nokia’s new building that was transformed in just six months to a gleaming corporate headquarters from a structural skeleton, will be the catalyst to revive a troubled 36-acre downtown redevelopment project and it benefits downtown merchants, particularly those on historic Murphy Avenue, a row of mostly vintage buildings that stands between the Caltrain commuter rail station and the new office building.

Site selection for the new Nokia regional complex was unusual, at least among the high-tech businesses of Silicon Valley. To complete the Nokia transaction, which was signed last May, the buildings owners had to overcome several obstacles. Many prospective tenants were wary of leasing a vacant property that was only half completed in a region that already had a surplus of vacant finished buildings and the fact that the building was in receivership did not fill prospective tenants with confidence in the owners. On looking for a location in which to consolidate its offices in Santa Clara County, however, Nokia decided against creating a stand-alone, enclosed campus, with features like its own commissary and gym. "There were many vacant buildings, but they tended to be isolated places," said Karen Lachtanski, a spokeswoman for Nokia. "We wanted to be in an area with amenities, such as being able to go out at lunchtime and have a choice of different places to eat.

Named the most creative deal of the year in 2010 by a local business paper, the move is consolidating the company's existing Mountain View, Redwood City, San Francisco and Menlo Park operations into the $76 million building, which comfortably houses some 500 employees and has room for about 250 more. The company’s two research centers in Palo Alto and Berkeley, where Nokia conducts its long term research operations, will remain in those cities to maintain their close relationships with Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.

The new complex was inaugurated on February 3, 2011 although initial occupancy began in mid-December 2010. More than 100 Nokia staff and guests including Sunnyvale city officials and downtown merchants toured the facility on the 3rd, exploring the second floor lounge that includes a deck. On the tour the group inspected private huts, or quiet work areas, which were modeled after Finnish saunas--a common thing to find in Finland's office buildings. The first floor is home to conference rooms and a lodging area for visiting business travelers. The lodge is open 24/7 and features beds and showers for the weary business traveler. Teleconference rooms can instantly link employees to partners in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Montreal, Beijing or Helsinki .Other meeting rooms are named after places in California, from landmarks to vineyards, and feature Finnish- designed furniture and carpets. Bright green peapod-shaped couches and elaborate lighting features brighten multiple seating areas.

Sunnyvale, a city of some 140,000 people located about 50 miles south of San Francisco, is less well known than other Silicon Valley cities like Palo Alto or Cupertino, but is a major job center. The city has a daytime population of 230,000 and is the headquarters for AMD, Maxim, Juniper Networks, Yahoo! and other high tech firms. ###

Quotes

"The best and the brightest are in the Silicon Valley, which is extremely helpful in terms of advancing our research and development, The opportunities are unlimited." - Silicon Valley and Espoo based Rich Green, Nokia CTO -

"The economic impact reaches beyond this structure, as Nokia employees visit Sunnyvale's shops and restaurants .But more than that, it brings a renewed sense of vitality to our downtown and serves as a highly visible reminder that for this area, the best days are yet to come." - Sunnyvale Mayor Melinda Hamilton -

"The innovation of the valley can be made available to the rest of the world through Nokia. For the first time, our program writers, recruiting services, the people writing the programs for maps, music and messaging, are all here in one place. One of the primary reasons for coming together in one building was to foster collaboration among departments that in the past 20 years were located all over the Bay Area" - Tom Furlong, SVP & GM of Nokia Messaging -

Sunnyvale Town Center Photos: The 1st during development and the 2nd before move-in..





Sources: Various including The New York Times, Sunnyvale Sun, San Jose Mercury, and Silicon Valley Business.

- Eric -