Headline May 12, 2015/ ''' THE SKILL & THE WILL : THE SILICON VALLEY TILL '''

''' THE SKILL & THE WILL : 

THE SILICON VALLEY TILL '''

NOTWITHSTANDING his care for details, he reportedly refuses to put them on paper. In a world obsessed with term sheets and employment agreements-

Associates say, Arrillaga has never signed a formal contract with any of his construction crews.

HIS WAY OF DOING BUSINESS seems wonderfully, refreshingly anachronistic   -and to hear legions of other Valley notables tell it-

It is the reason Arrillaga, who bats away offers to take cushy director seats on startup boards, has become a role model to the new generation of entrepreneurs and executives, many of whom-

Initially seek his development expertise but keep coming back for his wisdom. It's no surprise, perhaps, that Andreessen looks to his father-in-law regularly for advice; Harowitz, though, says he's just as solicitous of Arrillaga's ear.

The developer advises on everything from real-estate matters   -''Always buy from a leveraged, distressed seller,'' he says   -why it's not worth cheating on your wife {somewhat self explanatory}.

Says Horowitz, ''He is the guy everyone wants to do business with.''

There was no guarantee, certainly but the farmland the duo were buying would be worth more a month hence, but by the mid-1980s, the signposts were at least pointing that way.

The Santa Clara Valley was establishing itself as America's tech hub. Engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world were flocking to the area as innovations in personal computing, software, and semiconductors flourished.

Oracle, Cisco and others were bursting from their original workspaces and moving into new facilities as fast Peery Arrillaga could develop them. It wasn't long before the firm became the go-to landlords and developers in the Valley.

The men built and sold new buildings to LinkedIn, Google, and Apple, and they developed commercial office space on spec that they then leased to multiple small tenets.

What made the partners stand out wasn't just the locations they were cornering but also their attention to detail. Here, numerous people say, Arrillaga's focus has long bordered on the obsessive. His $100 million rebuild of Stanford Stadium took just 10 months, as he and three shifts of crews worked around the clock.

Arrillaga not only choose the crews but also picked out the concession food, the seat material  -even the palm trees framing the scoreboard. 

But these days Arrillaga spends at least half his week driving through Stanford's campus in his golf cart, zipping around at least 11 concurrent projects he's overseeing to expand and gussy up  ''the Farm'' even farther.

One of them is a volleyball stadium, with grassy slopes, palm trees, and four sand-filled courts  -complete with finely ground sand from Monterey, which Arrillaga is particularly fond of. 

As with Stanford Stadium before it, he is overseeing every morsel of development, even designing the surrounding fence, which is made of steel alloy that weathers elegantly in the elements. 

   

For all of Arrillaga's involvement in the minutiae of bathroom tile and landscaping, his projects are not quite things of beauty. His buildings, like much  -or even most-  of the office space in Silicon Valley, are simply utilitarian.

But as an economic indicator of sorts, the team's developments are a thing of beauty and clarity. The company's website suggests where it thinks the action is, listing dozens of properties available in the south part of the Valley, in Milpitas and South San Jose.

And in North San Jose, by the airport, where Company X is getting ready to reside [or move or expand], there is likely to be a flutter of new tech activity.

Given the Valley's ever-escalating prices, how much more potential potential upside is there? Arrillaga, those close to him say, believes the climb has much further to go.

The demand is now coming overwhelmingly from businesses like Google, Apple, and LinkedIn-  huge tech companies that are expanding their businesses and increasing employee headcounts, pushing the companies into a continued hunt for space.

They are making gigantic bets on expansion in a way the developer  {again to hear colleagues tell it}  has never witnessed, even during the 1990s-dotcom boom.

''John, just sees this as a very powerful thing,'' says Andreessen. ''He has a deep and abiding faith in the silicon Valley phenomenon.'' 

Andreessen recalls a recent conversation in which he asked his father-in-law if he could invest again, with the same startup enthusiasm-  anywhere in the U.S.  -where would it be?

Arrillaga didn't pause a moment: ''Oh, the Bay Area, for sure.''

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

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