TikTok Accelerates Real Estate Expansion, Plans Sizable Leases In 3 Cities

Social media titan TikTok is planning to enlarge its physical footprint in the U.S. by hundreds of thousands of square feet across three metros, bucking the tech industry’s larger retreat from physical space.

Flush from a major e-commerce growth spurt, the tech firm is exploring new leases in Silicon Valley, the greater Seattle area and Nashville, CoStar reports.

While neither TikTok nor its parent company, ByteDance, has finalized any leasing efforts and the deals could still fall through, the company's appetite for office space is a welcome turnabout for landlords used to bloated tenants cutting excess office calories.

TikTok, which employs about 7,000 people in the U.S., has an increased need for physical space after rolling out a mandate last fall requiring its American workforce to work in a physical office at least three days a week. The company requires certain workers to come in for a full five-day workweek. 

In Nashville, TikTok is in discussions to lease over 100K SF in one of the city’s newest developments, the 16-story Moore Building in the heart of Music Row, CoStar reported. The company has leased 50K SF in a WeWork location for the past couple of years as it searched for more permanent space. 

The social media giant is also close to a deal that would more than double its existing space in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, according to CoStar. TikTok would add about 132K SF in the city’s Lincoln Square North tower, replacing Microsoft in the space and increasing its regional footprint to more than 242K SF. 

Elsewhere on the West Coast, ByteDance has a sublease agreement in the works to expand its footprint in San Jose, California, CoStar reported. ByteDance subleases roughly 660K SF at 1193 and 1199 Coleman Ave. from Roku and is looking to sublease additional space — potentially more than 357K SF — from the streaming device producer at 1143 and 1155 Coleman Ave. 

The company also leases office space in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin, according to CoStar.