Pac-12 Leases Studio In San Ramon's Bishop Ranch

SAN RAMON, CA — The Pac-12 Conference, the collegiate athletic conference made up of 12 of the most prestigious public and private universities in the western United States, will move its production studio from San Francisco to Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.

The conference announced Wednesday that it signed a lease for a 42,000-square-foot space at Bishop Ranch 15 (12457 to 12677 Alcosta Boulevard), and plans to relocate in summer 2023. The studio will focus on live sports content, and help the Pac-12 produce more than 850 live events annually, in addition to other programming. Pac-12 said it expects more than 100 staffers and freelancers to come to the office on busy game days. The new facility will also feature flexible workspace and in-person meeting rooms.

Pac-12 announced in March that it was dissolving its downtown San Francisco headquarters in favor of a facility for content production. Most employees will now work remotely, unless they need to use the studio. The conference reportedly paid $8 million in occupancy for its San Francisco office space in the 2020 fiscal year, according to financial documents reviewed by the Bay Area News Group.

Alex Mehran Jr., the president of San Ramon-based Bishop Ranch owner and developer Sunset Development, told siliconvalley.com that the move will further burnish Bishop Ranch and San Ramon’s reputation.

“This is an important brand to have for our region. It’s kind of cool to get this deal done with this kind of creative organization,” he said. “This is the kind of creative use that you would normally have expected in San Francisco or Berkeley. Here they have a location and a setup in a place that’s safe and is in a great place to come to work.”
Bishop Ranch is perhaps best known as the former headquarters of Chevron Park, a 92-acre, 1.3-million-square foot campus that was home to the oil company since the 1980s.

In September, Chevron resold Chevron Park back to Sunset Development for an undisclosed sum, and signed a new lease to a 400,000-square-foot office Bishop Ranch. The new space is expected to accommodate 2,000 employees and be complete in late 2023, Sunset Development said in a statement.