Sunnyvale, 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.

Sunnyvale's largest holders are a handful of tech and defence companies and, on its northern edge, the federal government. Google has bought block after block in Moffett Park since 2017 and is the County's largest taxpayer; Intuitive Surgical owns 128 acres; the United States keeps title to the roughly 1,000-acre Moffett Federal Airfield, which a Google affiliate leases. The County publishes no owner names, so smaller private holdings cannot be ranked, and the City's own property inventory could not be read.

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.

Sunnyvale's new-home permits have fallen steeply: the Census Bureau's permit survey (s20) counts 677 homes authorised in 2019, 430 in 2020, 1,400 in 2021, 925 in 2022, 558 in 2023, 209 in 2024 and 139 in 2025, nearly all of the volume in buildings of five or more units (1,209 of 1,400 in 2021; 83 of 139 in 2025). There is no builder league table for the city and the City's own planning and permit pages refused automated requests. What the public record shows is who built the downtown towers (Cityline) and who owns the large apartment stock (REIT filings). None of the national homebuilders' FY2025 10-Ks opened (Lennar, Toll Brothers, KB Home, PulteGroup, Taylor Morrison, Tri Pointe) names a Sunnyvale community.

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

Sunnyvale's commercial ground is held mostly by the companies that use it: Google, Intuitive Surgical, Applied Materials, Juniper (now HPE) and Lockheed Martin. The main landlord is a private developer, a private Bay Area office developer, which builds campuses and leases them whole to tech tenants. None of the listed office or industrial REITs whose FY2025 10-Ks were searched (Kilroy, BXP, Hudson Pacific, Prologis, Alexandria, Digital Realty, Equinix, Realty Income, Regency) lists a Sunnyvale property. No source states anyone's total Sunnyvale floor area.

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. Homeowners Manual - Santa Clara County, p. 41: supplemental tax - on a change in ownership or completed new construction the County Assessor appraises at full cash value, which becomes the new base year value — Old Republic Title · openA
3. NASA Release 14-305: NASA signs lease with Planetary Ventures, LLC to manage Moffett Federal Airfield (about 1,000 acres) and rehabilitate Hangar One; $1.16B rent over the initial 60-year term; federal government retains title — NASA · openA
4. Hangar One Restoration Project: Planetary Ventures completed restoration of Hangar One in December 2025 — NASA (Ames Research Center) · openA
5. Google Leases Space at Sunnyvale's Moffett Park (29 Jan 2020): new leases at 1020 and 1050 Enterprise Way; Google to occupy all six buildings at Moffett Place and all of Moffett Gateway; deal struck with a private Bay Area office developer that developed the buildings — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
6. Google Amasses More Property in Sunnyvale (18 Sep 2019): per Santa Clara County records Google paid $95.6M for a 16-acre parcel owned by NetApp (East Java Dr, Geneva Dr, East Caribbean Dr, Crossman Ave); NetApp kept 14 acres — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
7. Google Expands Footprint in Sunnyvale and Across the Country (15 Aug 2019): Google reportedly paid Verizon $1B for properties incl. Yahoo's former headquarters (Bordeaux Dr / N Mathilda Ave); Google bought an office complex on Caribbean Drive in 2018; 40.5-acre Caribbean campus plan, 1,041,890 sq ft — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
8. Google Continues Buying Property in Sunnyvale (28 Apr 2020): $28.5M for 165 Gibraltar Court (former Texas Instruments); 2017 purchases at 160 Gibraltar Ct, 1212 Bordeaux Dr and 1265 Borregas Ave — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
9. Apple Now Rents from Applied Materials in Sunnyvale (2 Sep 2019): Applied Materials bought three Sunnyvale properties for $113.6M; the Sunnyvale Research Center buildings at 1050-1090 East Arques Ave, leased to Apple, for $100M — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
10. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. Form 10-K FY2025, Item 2 Properties: 'we own approximately 4.1 million square feet of space on 128 acres of land in Sunnyvale, California' — SEC EDGAR (Intuitive Surgical, CIK 0001035267) · openA
11. Juniper Networks, Inc. Form 10-K FY2024, Item 2 Properties: 'Our corporate headquarters is located at an owned site in Sunnyvale, California' (1133 Innovation Way) — SEC EDGAR (Juniper Networks, CIK 0001043604) · openA
12. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Form 10-K FY2025 (year to 31 Oct 2025): acquisition of Juniper Networks; Sunnyvale among its major US product development, services and manufacturing locations — SEC EDGAR (HPE, CIK 0001645590) · openA
13. Lockheed Martin Corp. Form 10-K FY2025, Item 2 Properties: Space segment principal locations include Sunnyvale, California; owned, leased and government-owned floor space by segment (not by site) — SEC EDGAR (Lockheed Martin, CIK 0000936468) · openA
14. CSAIL 2017-C8 Commercial Mortgage Trust, structural and collateral term sheet (FWP): Mortgage Loan No. 3 'Apple Sunnyvale' - 410, 420 and 430 North Mary Avenue, 349,758 sq ft on 14.8 acres, single tenant; borrowers Risingstar II LLC and Desert Sunrise LLC; title fee; loan purpose acquisition; purchase price $290,700,000; appraised $292M (Jan 2017) — SEC EDGAR (CSAIL 2017-C8, CIK 0001708131) · openA
15. Cityline Sunnyvale Passes 75% Leased Milestone (7 Mar 2025): development team officially STC Venture, LLC, a joint venture of Sares Regis Group of Northern California and Hunter Partners; 1,100 apartments, 1M sq ft office and 500,000 sq ft retail planned; The Martin 479 units — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
16. Downtown Sunnyvale Development Enters New Phase (7 Feb 2022): Cityline Block 3 North groundbreaking - two seven-storey office towers and a 12-storey, 479-unit apartment building with 53 affordable homes on the former Macy's site — The Silicon Valley Voice · openA
17. Essex Property Trust Form 10-K FY2025: 13 communities listed as Sunnyvale, CA (property table and Schedule III); 2025 acquisition of 1250 Lakeside (250 homes, 100%, $143.5M, Nov 2025) — SEC EDGAR (Essex, CIK 0000920522) · openA
18. Equity Residential Form 10-K FY2025, Schedule III: Arbor Terrace (177 units), The Arches (410), Briarwood (192), Sunnyvale, CA — SEC EDGAR (Equity Residential, CIK 0000906107) · openA
19. AvalonBay Communities Form 10-K FY2025, Schedule III: Avalon Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, CA, 714 units, built 1998 — SEC EDGAR (AvalonBay, CIK 0000915912) · openA
20. Building Permits Survey, annual place files (West Region) 2019-2025: Sunnyvale, CA, units authorised by structure size — U.S. Census Bureau · openA