Newmark and DivcoWest Announce Plug and Play’s AI Center of Excellence Lease at 2 West Santa Clara in Downtown San Jose

April 2, 2025 9:00 AM

Newmark and DivcoWest, a DivCore Capital company, announce the completion of a new lease with Plug and Play at 2 West Santa Clara, a premier creative office building in Downtown San Jose. Plug and Play has selected DivcoWest’s award-winning property as the home for its new AI Center of Excellence, marking a pivotal moment for downtown San Jose’s emergence as a hub for AI innovation.

Newmark Vice Chairmen Mike Saign and Jeff Arrillaga and Managing Director Grant Meylan serve as the listing agents for 2 West Santa Clara. The team worked closely with DivcoWest to secure the tenant, which will operate incubation space for AI-focused startups.

“Our team is excited to kick off the leasing of 2 West with Plug and Play,” said Saign. “The public and private support of this initiative is an incredible partnership that will quickly draw more emerging AI startups to the tech ecosystem downtown. The speed of AI innovation coupled with the vibrant urban experience downtown San Jose offers is an exciting combination that will benefit the city and community for decades to come.”

“We’re excited that DivcoWest, Newmark and 2 West Santa Clara can be part of the team helping to bring an AI-focused startup ecosystem to downtown San Jose,” added Mike Pelletier, Managing Director, Investments, DivcoWest. “We look forward to partnering with Plug and Play and working closely with them to realize that vision.”

“DivcoWest’s vision to transform 2 West into a contemporary, bespoke, creative office space has paid off as evidenced by this new lease,” said Arrillaga. “We’re proud to support downtown San Jose in attracting a tenant like Plug and Play, whose presence will elevate the submarket as a destination for AI innovation.”

About DivcoWest
Founded in 1993 by Stuart Shiff, DivcoWest, a DivCore Capital Company, is a vertically integrated, real estate investment firm headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Cambridge, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Washington DC, Austin, and New York City. Known for long-standing relationships and experience across the risk-spectrum in innovation markets, DivcoWest combines entrepreneurial spirit with an institutional approach to commercial real estate. DivcoWest aims to create environments that inspire ingenuity, promote growth, and enhance health and well-being. Since inception, DivcoWest and its predecessor have acquired approximately 61 million square feet of commercial space - primarily throughout the United States. DivcoWest’s real estate portfolio currently includes existing and development properties in the office, R&D, lab, industrial, retail, and multifamily spaces. www.divcowest.com. Follow @DivcoWest on LinkedIn.

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is the leading innovation platform, connecting startups, corporations, venture capital firms, universities, and government agencies. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we’re present in 60+ locations across five continents. We offer corporate innovation programs and help our corporate partners in every stage of their innovation journey, from education to execution. We also organize startup acceleration programs and have built an in-house VC to drive innovation across multiple industries where we’ve invested in hundreds of successful companies including Dropbox, Guardant Health, Honey, Lending Club, N26, PayPal, and Rappi. For more information, visit https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/

About Newmark
Newmark Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NMRK), together with its subsidiaries (“Newmark”), is a world leader in commercial real estate, seamlessly powering every phase of the property life cycle. Newmark’s comprehensive suite of services and products is uniquely tailored to each client, from owners to occupiers, investors to founders, and startups to blue-chip companies. Combining the platform’s global reach with market intelligence in both established and emerging property markets, Newmark provides superior service to clients across the industry spectrum. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2024, Newmark generated revenues of over $2.7 billion. As of December 31, 2024, Newmark and our business partners together operated from approximately 170 offices with more than 8,000 professionals across four continents. To learn more, visit nmrk.com or follow @newmark.

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