EV/robotics site‑selection case study

A Silicon Valley brokerage is using one Faraday Future lease in San Jose as a playbook for pitching electric vehicle, artificial intelligence and robotics tenants entering the Bay Area. (theivygroup.com) The Ivy Group published the case study on April 9, 2026 and said it advised Faraday Future on San Jose leasing work during the automaker’s shift from private company to Nasdaq-listed public company. Faraday Future completed that public listing in July 2021 through its merger with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. (theivygroup.com; nasdaq.com) The firm’s website says it focuses on industrial, research-and-development and flex space between 10,000 and 200,000 square feet in Fremont and Silicon Valley. Its March 28 archive entry says the Faraday Future assignment involved helping the company enter the Bay Area and later handling a second leasing need as the business evolved. (theivygroup.com; theivygroup.com) Site selection is the business of deciding where a company should place offices, labs or light manufacturing before it signs a lease. For electric vehicle, robotics and artificial intelligence companies, that usually means balancing power, loading, ceiling height, parking, lab buildout and commute access instead of renting a standard office floor. (theivygroup.com; cbre.com) That question is more urgent in 2026 because Silicon Valley has more space on the market than it did during the pandemic boom, but not every building works for hardware teams. CBRE put Silicon Valley office vacancy at 15.4% in the first quarter of 2026, while Cushman & Wakefield put research-and-development vacancy at 13.0% and industrial vacancy at 6.4%. (cbre.com; assets.cushmanwakefield.com; assets.cushmanwakefield.com) San Jose remains one of the tighter industrial submarkets even with that broader slack. Colliers said San Jose industrial vacancy was 6.1% in the first quarter of 2026, while Fremont was lower at 2.1%, and linked demand there to access to power. (colliers.com) Faraday Future gives the story a second angle because its own real estate history shows how quickly a scaling hardware company’s needs can change. The company went public in July 2021, said in its 2025 annual report that it had 288 employees at year-end 2025, and has continued to operate while reshaping its product plans and facilities footprint. (nasdaqtrader.com; sec.gov) Its property record has also been uneven. TechCrunch reported in February 2024 that Faraday Future was at risk of losing its Los Angeles headquarters over nearly $1 million in unpaid rent, and other reports that month said a San Jose landlord alleged more than $127,000 in missed lease payments. (techcrunch.com; sjvsun.com) The Ivy Group’s pitch is that a broker who understands those growth swings can help tenants avoid locking into the wrong building too early. In a YouTube version of the case study, the firm frames the choice in plain terms: whether a fast-growing company should sign a long-term lease immediately or stage its move. (youtube.com) That leaves the post less as a victory lap than as a sales document built around one Bay Area tenant story. In a market where artificial intelligence tenants are lifting office demand while industrial users still need power-ready space, the basic argument is that picking the building is now part of the operating plan. (theivygroup.com; cbre.com; colliers.com)