Gold Pointe center gets second big deal in week

In one of the biggest private-sector office leases ever in the Sacramento area, Health Net of California will consolidate much of its local operation at the emerging Gold Pointe Corporate Center in Gold River, officials said Thursday.

Health Net Inc. will move nearly 1,000 employees into about 175,000 square feet of offices in the park by mid-2002, spokeswoman Lisa J. Haines said.

Terms of the 10-year lease were not released, but industry sources said it likely would be valued at more than $40 million.

In both size and value, the deal would rank among the biggest in the region, along with The Money Store pyramid in West Sacramento, Delta Dental and Bank of America, both in Rancho Cordova, and Western Integrated Networks at McClellan Park.

It was the second major deal announced this week for Panattoni Development Co.'s business park at Hazel Avenue and U.S. 50. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. earlier agreed to lease about 80,000 square feet in the park for some 300 employees.

"That's a home run out there," said Dave Jarrette, a partner in the Roseville appraisal firm of Giannelli, Jarrette & Filipiak.

"It shows you that the (Highway) 50 corridor is going nuts from Rancho to Gold River, Folsom and El Dorado Hills," said Jarrette, who agreed that the deal was in the top tier for the region.

In addition, Washington Mutual has leased about 9,000 square feet and final negotiations are under way with additional "Fortune 500" companies, said Frank Pipgras, a partner in the brokerage firm of Aguer Pipgras Associates.

Pipgras represented Health Net Inc., the Woodland Hills-based parent company of Health Net of California. His firm is leasing the multi-tenant park for Panattoni.

One of the largest private developers in the United States, Sacramento-based Panattoni is building 385,000 square feet of offices in the 28-acre park. Pipgras said the Health Net deal means that almost 75 percent of the park has been leased before a single building has been completed.

In a nice burst of symmetry, Panattoni bought the site from Foundation Health Systems -- now Health Net Inc. -- which once planned a half-million-square-foot headquarters campus there. Health Net has an 80,000-square-foot data center that adjoins the park.

Health Net will take a three-story, 145,000-square-foot building in the center of the park, Pipgras said. The company also will lease about half of a 64,000-square-foot building next door.

Health Net of California has 2.2 million members and the parent company has about 1,700 employees in the Sacramento area, said Haines, director of public relations for Health Net Inc.

The employees at Gold Pointe will move from Health Net offices on Data Drive and White Rock Road in Rancho Cordova, Haines said. Their duties include Medi-Cal programs, sales, finance, payroll, corporate travel and employer occupational services.

Other Health Net facilities in the region are at Aerojet and on International Drive in Rancho Cordova, along with the data center next to Gold Pointe, Haines said.

The company searched exclusively along the Highway 50 corridor, from Mather Field to Folsom, for its new offices to keep from extending the commute for its growing roster of employees, she said.

In terms of sheer size, the Health Net lease at Gold Pointe would rank fifth among private office leases in the capital region, according to the Sacramento office of Cornish & Carey Commercial.

Values of such leases are not always available, but the deal almost certainly would rank in the top 10, industry sources agreed.