Cornish & Carey opened in 1935 in downtown Palo Alto during the depths of the depression. Two young Stanford graduates, George E. (Pat) Carey and Herbert J. Cornish, pioneers in their own rights, were taking steps toward creating what was to become Northern California's largest locally owned real estate firm serving both commercial and residential properties.  Soon after the Palo Alto office was opened, David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded Hewlett Packard, while Russell and Sigmund Varian founded Varian Associates. Silicon Valley, the high technology center of the world, had begun. As the region exploded with growth in the 1950s and 1960s, C&C was there to assist innovative firms find homes for their employees as well as shop and office space for designing and manufacturing their products. Later, as the region became a manufacturing and production hub, C&C’s service offerings accompanied the new demand for commercial space by providing leasing and sales expertise in R&D, warehouse and distribution facilities.

As The Silicon Valley matured, in the early 1990s C&C decided to focus exclusively on commercial real estate and divest its interest in residential property marketing. Cornish & Carey Commercial grew rapidly and in 1991 forged a relationship with ONCOR International to serve clients demand globally. Today, the strength of the organization and comprehensive service platform has enabled Cornish & Carey to outperform its peers in every market cycle as it continues to professionally meet and exceed the real estate needs of Northern California corporations, institutions, national and international companies.

In 2009, we:

• Leased over 19,312,260 square feet
• Sold over 2,588,938 square feet
• Completed $1,846,645,234 in transactions
• Closed over 2,592 transactions