SUNNYVALE — Applied Materials has bought a big Sunnyvale building where Fry’s Electronics once operated a store, extending a shopping spree for the tech titan that now has topped a head-spinning $390 million.
In the most recent deal, Applied Materials paid $100 million for the old Fry’s Electronics property at 1077 East Arques Avenue in Sunnyvale, according to documents filed on Oct. 2 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
The exterior of the Fry’s Electronics store in Sunnyvale, as seen soon after it closed in February 2021. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
In recent years, Applied Materials has been busy collecting varied properties, primarily older commercial or industrial buildings in Sunnyvale.
Santa Clara-based Applied Materials is gathering the buildings as a collective foundation for the company’s future expansion.
The company’s Sunnyvale purchase program began in 2018 when Applied Materials bought a building at 928 East Arques Avenue.
The producer of equipment and software for the semiconductor industry has now paid a stunning $396.4 million for properties in Sunnyvale, including the just-completed $100 million Fry’s site purchase.
While the Fry’s Sunnyvale deal bore a big price tag, it wasn’t the largest amount the tech titan has paid to collect Sunnyvale properties.
In 2019, Applied Materials paid $100.9 million for a tech campus of big office buildings leased to Apple with addresses ranging from 1050 through 1090 East Arques.
The Sunnyvale property purchases could be poised to bolster a huge new tech complex Applied Materials is planning.
The future Applied Materials complex is known as the Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization Center.
Fry’s Electronics abruptly imploded in 2021 by filing for bankruptcy and closing all of its stores at the same time.
The Sunnyvale store featured a Silicon Valley theme during its years of operation, including a sine wave above the entrance.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Applied Materials intends to do with its new Sunnyvale purchase.
However, other Fry’s Electronics stores in the Bay Area are slated for new missions.
A former Fry’s in Fremont could be upgraded and renovated to accommodate advanced manufacturing or other industrial uses.
A one-time Fry’s store in north San Jose is slated to remain upright and become part of a big tech campus operated by the property’s owner, tech company Super Micro Computer.
In multiple instances, the buildings that once housed Fry’s Electronics retail operations remain, although new uses have sprouted inside the structures.
Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park operates at a former Fry’s Electronics in Concord. Campbell Bintang Badminton and The HUB Pickleball are operating at a one-time Fry’s store in Campbell.
