SV Chat: Alex Mehran Jr. leads major transformation at Bishop Ranch

SAN RAMON Decades ago Bishop Ranch became a premier business park offering modern and sleek office buildings that put it on the map as one of the Bay Area s most of effective corporate hubs The vision for the site whose developer and owner is Sunset Advance helped entice major corporations such as Chevron Toyota PG E and Pacific Bell which later became AT T Related Articles Elias Office conversions wave of future present in California elsewhere San Jose project with hundreds of homes advances with real estate deal Eight Oakland apartment buildings bought for million-plus South Bay content center deal points to jump in values amid AI tech surge Fitness center eyes new location at San Jose electronics store site Now Alex Mehran Jr president of Sunset Growth is continuing to build on the foundation that his father Alex Mehran Sr and grandfather Masud Mehran established Mehran Jr launched a wide-ranging gambit to transform Bishop Ranch into a true full-fledged mixed-use neighborhood The complex s ongoing evolution includes City Center Bishop Ranch a retail and dining center The great leap for Bishop Ranch is housing Mehran Jr and Sunset Rise envision housing units countless of which will sprout on office building sites and even atop the former Chevron Park that for decades served as the headquarters for the vitality company This news organization just now interviewed Mehran Jr about the current transformation of Bishop Ranch Q How did the idea emerge to transform Bishop Ranch into more of a neighborhood A In we completed an entitlement for acres of land The site would have a city hall three new office buildings apartments condos a hotel and a bunch of retail All of this was going to be downtown San Ramon Q Why was this not delivered prior to now A It didn t happen before because our expertise is in delivering office space In the s it was easy to deliver office space because there was so much demand for that Building a downtown is a lot different than building offices The downtown San Ramon concept is a long-term idea Q At one point were you looking at a traditional shopping mall with big anchor stores A We received an entitlement for a big mixed-use traditional center But department stores vanished We saw the collapse of the department store business Neiman Marcus went to Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek but they didn t make it there either and closed that store Q Was it really a timing issue more than anything A You know how it works with real estate You get approval for a project and as soon as that happens the whole world changes You had the recession of You had that whole craze of companies wanting to be in San Francisco because it was a cool place All of a sudden you didn t have to be in Bishop Ranch You could be in Texas or Omaha or Phoenix You didn t have to be in the Bay Area Q Did all of these changes cause you to look at a new approach for the retail component A We rethought things and built City Center There is no downtown in San Ramon and City Center is that downtown Q How does the City Center approach differ from the traditional shopping mall with big department stores as the anchors at each end A The spirit of the place is what s vital The idea is that we have great brands and that s better than a place that s dominated by one or two department stores We thought that was a great strategy we delivered that and it s working well Q How did the coronavirus outbreak affect your plans to create a housing neighborhood A COVID was the last shoe to drop The Bay Area has a housing predicament We thought it would be a great idea to have residents in our Bishop Ranch core area We rethought our whole land plan and started to get entitlements for all of these new neighborhoods at Bishop Ranch We were sitting there controlling million square feet of office space The question was how much do you really need Q Was there also a shift in thinking about the best place to work and live A In the s s s and up to people stated San Francisco was the best place to live and work After COVID people decided that being in San Francisco wasn t so great We leveraged the benefits of our suburban setting We took a best-in-class approach Now we have modern office buildings with great amenities at City Center very close by Q Did the concept of downtown San Ramon also evolve A The downtown was originally that -acre project Now the downtown is the whole place It s all of Bishop Ranch Q How fundamental are the open spaces at Bishop Ranch for the creation of a mixed-use neighborhood A We have trees here You can t just replicate that It s unique Those trees are from the s and s Now thousands and thousands of these trees are here They have been cared for over a large number of years This makes the place more enjoyable Q Particular housing has already been built Do you have a sense that the strategy is working to create new neighborhoods at Bishop Ranch A I hear more and more stories about people who work in one of our office buildings and that they bought a home in one of our villages When you come to Bishop Ranch there are lots of different brands there are all kinds of different places and experiences There is a real sense of place here ALEX MEHRAN JR Organization Sunset Maturation Co Title President and CEO Age Instruction Brown University International and Population Affairs Residence Resides in Danville with his family Prior roles Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Private Equity Fund Group Joined the Sunset Rise organization in Roles at Sunset Enhancement included senior vice president and general manager in charge of the management of Bishop Ranch FIVE THINGS ABOUT ALEX MEHRAN JR Alex and his wife Maggie are the proud parents of four children Avid pilot ski mountaineer and open-ocean sailor Holder of the elapsed time record for the Solo Transpac race with his eight-day passage in from San Francisco to Hanalei Bay at Kauai island in the state of Hawaii A parent of two scouts Alex loves and supports scouting Vice chair of the board of governors at the Watson Institute a Brown University international and masses affairs institute that just now was approved to become the fifth school at Brown