Here's Why LinkedIn Doesn't Accept Dogs

Tech's needs are changing, and they are finally ready to fully embrace vertical—and let go of furry friends inside office spaces. Some of the biggest stars in real estate explained why at Bisnow's recent Next Phase of Soma event at Hotel Nikko last week.

LinkedIn VP, workplace, James Morgensen says 222 2nd won't have canines running through its brand new halls. He learned that lesson the hard way during his stint at Zynga; the company, named after the founder's dog, had some 200 pooches for every 1,000 staff. Dogs create headaches on the landlord and tenant sides, and the operational costs for cleanup were astronomical. He also thinks dogs are a workplace distraction. (There were even dog councils to mediate dog fights.)

Square global facilities manager Maja Henderson said the payments processing company was attracted to the concrete fortress that is 1455 Market because of its "internal beauty." Once BofA's critical data center, the firm decided to start from scratch inside and take advantage of its infrastructure and giant floor plates. 

Here's the rooftop of 1455, which has a helipad. Maja says the environment promotes a collaborative work style, and even the CEO doesn't have an office. But now Square is realizing that open spaces aren't always conducive for getting quiet work done, so the company is trying to figure out how to design more private areas. 

Allen Matkins partner Tony Natsis, who moderated, jokes that his dog would love to munch on the small Square pieces around the office. He says 1455 was the first building that proves tech is willing to go vertical (Uber is also a tenant). He says the debate a few years back was whether tech would be up for anything other than exposed brick and timber. Now giant leases like that at Salesforce Tower prove they will.

Boston Properties senior project manager Michael Tymoff says his firm's "Salesforce Tower" is positioned as a vertical campus and will connect to a five-acre city park at Transbay. He says he hopes he's going to get a call from Salesforce about taking the remaining 29 floors left to lease at the 1.4M SF skyscraper. He reveals Boston's 680 and 690 Folsom are 100% leased to tech companies like Metromile. They'll be taking up paddles, as a global ping pong social club chain owned in part by Susan Sarandon just signed a deal at 690. And 535 Mission, which wrapped up last year, is 80% leased and has two full floors and two partial floors open. 

These days, competing developers are even willing to work together to nab the right tenant. That's exactly what Kilroy EVP Mike Sanford and Breevast CEO Terry Crowley did in order to score Dropbox at their new Brannan Street buildings. Panelists agree that there's somewhat of an "entitlement train wreck" in the city when it comes to projects that are piling up. The city has a large task to figure out what to do—if anything—with Prop M to allow projects to get approved where tech tenants want to go.