Sony Electronics broke ground on its 11-story, $150 million headquarters building in Rancho Bernardo on Dec. 4.
Dignitaries shoveling the first dirt included Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow and San Diego City Councilman Brian Maienschein, who represents the area.
The project will replace two existing buildings at the site, and provide Sony staffers with improved communication, and presumably, better work conditions.
The main product assembled at the site is Vaio laptop computers, but the site also houses Sony’s corporate administration, planning, engineering, development and marketing functions.
Sony Electronics, which generated annual revenue of $70 billion in its last fiscal year, moved its North American headquarters here from Park Ridge, N.J. in 2004.
The company first established operations in San Diego in 1971.
Among the features of the new building are a top floor used for a staff cafeteria with an exterior dining terrace, and an underground parking garage. Some 1,450 employees will work from the facility when it’s completed, sometime in mid-2009, a spokeswoman said.
The general contractor for the project is Sundt-Pacific Building Group, and the lender is Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
, Mike Allen
