Meta Giving Up 435K SF In Downtown San Francisco

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, plans to list for sublease its 435K SF office at 181 Fremont St. in San Francisco following an announcement late last year that it would lay off 11,000 employees. The company has said it will retain its 755K SF office at 250 Howard St.

The move is the latest blow to San Francisco’s depressed office market, which hit a 32% availability rate by the end of 2022. News of the listing was first reported by the San Francisco Business Times.

JLL will handle the listing, the largest sublease for a single property in San Francisco, according to the Business Times.

Jay Paul Co. owns the property, which also includes condos. Meta leases the entire office portion of the building, using the space primarily for Instagram employees.

Meta's lease extends through 2031 and is expected to list on June 1.

“The future of work is here and we’re embracing it at Meta,” a spokesperson told the San Francisco Business Times in a statement. “The past few years have brought new possibilities around the role of the office, and we are prioritizing making focused, balanced investments to support our most strategic long-term priorities and lead the way in creating the workplace of the future. Our aim is to build a best-in-class remote work experience to help everyone do the best work of their careers no matter where they are."   

The move comes as part of a continued real estate transition for Meta. The company paused construction on multiple data center projects at the end of last year to refocus on artificial intelligence redesigns. 

Meta said last year it would cut office space amid a broader push to remote work. The company also terminated a 200K SF office lease in Manhattan in October. 

The company followed that by offering 589K SF for sublease in Austin, Texas, and 310K SF in London.

2023 is off to a rough start for the Bay Area tech and office industries. Seven hundred of the 8,000 recently announced Salesforce layoffs will hit the company’s San Francisco office by March. 

Salesforce, one of the other major tech tenants in the city, also placed 350K SF for sublease at its Salesforce West location last year. The lease at its Boston Properties-owned Salesforce Tower runs through 2031. 

AT&T listed over 260K SF for sublease at its offices in the Bishop Ranch office park in San Ramon, California.