State Farm Insurance 'Actively' Seeking Buyer

The 36-acre State Farm campus is officially up for sale — and so far, the insurance giant has "a couple interested buyers," says Shirley Gordon, vice president of operations in Rohnert Park — but so far — no takers.

"We've identified a broker, and we're in the process of selling the property," Gordon said on a recent day. "We've had significant interest, but so far, no one's made an offer."

Gordon declined to talk about who the interested buyers are, but she did say they fit under the umbrella of "development."

While city officials have to develop the site into some sort of , and have even informally mentioned working towards a public-private partnership, State Farm execs said in late May that there are no such plans in the works.

We've been meeting with Rohnert Park officials since the company announced it's departure from Rohnert Park in November, but we're not planning any sort of partnership, said Lonny Haskins, a State Farm Insurance spokesperson.

The Rohnert Park branch, a 320,000 square-foot building that's currently 35 percent occupied, is slated to be officially closed by July 31. Company officials said a mix of technology and the economic fallout from the Great Recession have forced the move. In addition to the Rohnert Park facility, nine of its other satellite offices are being closed and moved to Bakersfield, including offices in San Francisco, Chico, Lancaster, Modesto, Palm Desert, San Luis Obispo, San Marcos, San Ramon and Watsonville.

The Bakersfield offices are about 40 percent full, Haskins said, and it's twice as big as the Rohnert Park building that was built here in 1977. Haskins said State Farm chose the Southern California hub because it's capable of absorbing a larger workforce and property values are significantly lower in Kern County.

But, finding a buyer could be difficult in today's economic climate. 

The total assessed value for the property is $22,418,153 — but it could be wildly different than that according to the Sonoma County Assessor's office, because under Proposition 13, the property can only be reassessed at the time of sale. The last time that property was assessed was 1977, when real estate mogul Hugh Codding purchased it.

It's likely that the property value has increased over the last 30-plus years, but given the depressed real estate market and a 42-plus commercial vacancy rate in Rohnert Park, Gordon said she's not expecting to get full market value.

"We're actively looking to sell the building, but we're not immune to the marketplace," she said. "I don't know very many companies who would get full market value right now."

Gordon estimated that about 42 percent of State Farm's 450 employees will make the move to Bakersfield, and about 100 employees are retiring, she said.

Editor's note: Stay tuned at Rohnert Park Patch this week for a series of mini-profiles chronicling the move from three different employees' perspectives.