October 20, 2006

Evergreen, meet your new neighbor

Hitachi GST relocates global headquarters to Yerba Buena Road

A tree planting ceremony to commemorate the relocation of the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Global Headquarters to Southeast Evergreen took place on Oct. 11 at Hitachi’s new campus on Yerba Buena Road.

From left to right: Currie Munce, vice president of Research; Bob Holleran, COO; District 8 Council member David Cortese; Hiroaki Nakanishi, CEO; Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer.

The tree planting is a Hitachi tradition, intending to symbolize growth and prosperity for the company and the community.

“Hitachi’s decision to relocate to southeast Evergreen signifies driving industries’ interest in setting up shop in semi-rural locations,” said District 8 Council member Dave Cortese, who attended the ceremony. “Over 550 new workers to the area will not only bolster commerce in Evergreen but will also signal to other companies that a semi-rural setting is a fantastic opportunity for employees to take advantage of a pastoral background while also being productive.”

Hitachi GST was founded in 2003 and was formed as a result of the strategic combination of IBM and Hitachi’s storage technology businesses. With its headquarters at the Yerba Buena facility, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies employs approximately 30,000 people worldwide.

Hitachi GST CEO Hiroaki Nakanishi with a ceremonial shovel of dirt at the Oct. 11 tree planting signifying the company’s arrival in the Evergreen area.

Hitachi announced in late 2004 its intentions to relocate its world headquarters from its Cottle Road facility to the Dade Behring building at 3403 Yerba Buena Rd. As part of the move, a total of more than 400 workers have set up shop at the Yerba Buena Road facility, including more than 120 researchers from IBM’s Almaden Research Lab.

Stephen McLaughlin, Hitachi GST Vice President of Real Estate and Site operations, said the process of finding a “stand alone research facility” initially began in 2003 with the help of Commercial Property Services. The 370,000 square-foot facility on Yerba Buena Road, according to McLaughlin, also received a facelift inside, with interior retrofitting, including lab space, done by Rudolph and Sletten General and Engineering Contractors.

The arduous task of moving operations to the Yerba Buena facility began in mid-September, according to McLaughlin.

“This is going to be a real source of additional storage invention and future product development,” McLaughlin said. “This is a world class facility.”