Milpitas, California

The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.

The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.

At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.

Milpitas's largest holders are the hardware and chip companies along McCarthy Boulevard and Tasman Drive, the Great Mall's owner, and a set of single-asset LLCs that hold new apartment and office blocks. The City's ACFR lists the top ten property taxpayers; together they carry 15.2% of the city's $26.2B net assessed value (FY2024-25), down from 17.1% in 2015-16. The County publishes no owner names, so the figures are assessed value, not acreage.

New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.

Milpitas builds mostly apartments and townhomes on former industrial land, first around the BART station (Metro plan) and now on business parks and ageing shopping centres. Permits swing with single large projects: 393 units in 5+ unit buildings in 2023, 85 in 2025. National builders appear as project applicants in CEQA filings; none publishes Milpitas counts.

The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.

Commercial ground in Milpitas is dominated by owner-occupied tech campuses rather than landlords. The listed landlords that disclose Milpitas assets are Simon (Great Mall), RLJ Lodging (Embassy Suites) and the apartment REITs. In 2015-16 the City's taxpayer list also carried Hudson Campus Center LLC ($124.1M), Regency Tasman Holdings LLC and Essex Portfolio LP; Hudson Pacific's FY2025 10-K no longer mentions Milpitas.

Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.

1. Top 10 Taxpayers in Santa Clara County, FY 2022-23 (assessed value and ad valorem taxes): Google, PG&E, Campus Holdings, Apple, Planetary Ventures LLC, Cisco, Westfield Malls, Applied Materials, Intel, LinkedIn — County of Santa Clara, Department of Tax and Collections (data.sccgov.org) · openA
2. City of Milpitas Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, year ended 30 June 2025: Schedule 5 (assessed value by class), Schedule 7 (principal property taxpayers FY2024-25 and FY2015-16), Schedule 21 (principal employers), Note 8 (capital assets), Successor Agency notes — City of Milpitas, Finance Department · openA
3. Simon Property Group Form 10-K FY2025: Item 2 property table (Great Mall, Milpitas (San Jose), CA - Fee and Ground Lease (2049), 100.0% ownership, acquired 2007, 1,365,059 sq ft) and Schedule III (Great Mall gross carrying amount $604,490K) — SEC EDGAR (Simon Property Group, CIK 0001063761) · openA
4. KLA Corp Form 10-K FY2026 (year to 30 Jun 2026): principal executive offices One Technology Drive, Milpitas; 'Our California operations are now primarily centralized in our Milpitas facility'; owns and leases facilities worldwide — SEC EDGAR (KLA Corp, CIK 0000319201) · openA
5. Sandisk Corporation Form 10-K FY2026 (year to 3 Jul 2026): principal executive offices 951 Sandisk Drive, Milpitas; Item 2 table - Milpitas, Leased, 578,000 sq ft; note on WDC's September 2023 sale-leaseback of its Milpitas facility (net proceeds $191M; lease to 1 Jan 2039, $16M first-year rent, +3%/yr) — SEC EDGAR (Sandisk Corp, CIK 0002023554) · openA
6. RLJ Lodging Trust Form 10-K FY2025: hotel list (Embassy Suites Milpitas Silicon Valley, 267 rooms) and Schedule III (land $43,157K; gross $83,343K; acquired 2017) — SEC EDGAR (RLJ Lodging Trust, CIK 0001511337) · openA
7. Essex Property Trust Form 10-K FY2025: Apex, Milpitas, CA, mid-rise, 367 units, built 2014, acquired 2014 (property table and Schedule III, gross $162,009K) — SEC EDGAR (Essex, CIK 0000920522) · openA
8. Equity Residential Form 10-K FY2025, Schedule III: Mill Creek, Milpitas, CA, built 1991, 516 units, gross $93,161,485 — SEC EDGAR (Equity Residential, CIK 0000906107) · openA
9. Building Permits Survey, annual place files (West Region) 2021-2025: Milpitas, CA - units authorised by structure size — U.S. Census Bureau · openA
10. CEQAnet SCH 2022110251 - Pulte Homes Residential Development at 1355 California Circle (NOP, Nov 2022): up to 206 units on 6.69 acres, vacant 90,000 sq ft industrial building — Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (CEQAnet) · openA
11. CEQAnet SCH 2026091106 - Murphy Village Project (NOP, Sep 2026): applicant Toll Brothers (Northern California Division); 38.5-acre former Milpitas Business Park, 791 units (174 single-family, 381 townhomes, 236 affordable apartments) — Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (CEQAnet) · openA
12. CEQAnet SCH 2026060979 - 600 Valley Way Residential Development Project (NOE, Jun 2026): applicant Sobrato Organization; 134 townhomes in 24 buildings on 7.22 acres — Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (CEQAnet) · openA
13. FAQ: Who owns the BART stations in Berryessa/North San José and Milpitas? 'VTA built and owns both new transit centers and the BART stations in them' — Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) · openA