On February 22, the bankruptcy court in Delaware overseeing Solyndra’s case approved the sale of the failed solar firm’s headquarters and production facility in Fremont, California.
The sale of the 450,000 square foot facility will be brokered by Jones Lang LaSalle. Completed in 2010, the facility apparently cost $300 million to build.
According to Reuters, a Jones Lang LaSalle representative declined to say how much the building could sell for, but another commercial real estate expert estimates that the facility could go for about $150 million.
“For companies interested in getting into the market quickly, this facility reduces speed to market, improves supply chain flexibility and mitigates risk at a fraction of replacement cost,” said Greg Matter, Vice President, Jones Lang LaSalle’s Supply Chain and Logistics Solutions team.
The facility, sitting on a 30 acre property, includes a 287,000 square foot manufacturing area and a two-storey office constructed to LEED Gold standard. The building has around 1.2 MW of installed solar panel capacity and is backed up by two 2 MW diesel generators. The property includes plans for an added 200,000 square foot expansion.
“This is a unique opportunity for a manufacturer or other user to acquire a brand new, state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley,” said Bart Lammersen, Managing Director in the firm’s Palo Alto office. “This caliber of property, with its high level of sophisticated infrastructure, is unique in California and even the world.”
Solyndra, which developed cylindrical solar panels, filed for bankruptcyin September 2011, despite a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
An aerial view of Solyndra's facility. Photo Credit: Jones Lang LaSalle
Since then, the Obama administration has been under fire from Republican Congressmen, who paint Solyndra as an example of why the government should not “pick winners and losers” in technology innovation.
Republicans in the Committee investigating the DOE loan guarantee say the White House is ‘stonewalling’ their efforts to get to the bottom of whether there was any political favoritism in the securing of the loan guarantee. But the White House has called these attacks unwarranted, claiming the investigators are on a political witch hunt.
While the Solyndra saga is by no means nearing an end, the sale of the company’s facility will remove the physical reminders.
