BackFacebook said to lease most of new Seattle office building
Facebook leased 3 million square feet of office and data-center facilities worldwide as of 31 December, according to its annual report
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Seattle: Facebook Inc. signed a lease for most of a new Seattle office building in a deal that would increase the amount of real estate it rents worldwide by about 9%, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The social-networking company agreed to occupy almost 275,000 square feet (25,500 square meters) at the recently completed Dexter Station in the South Lake Union neighborhood north of downtown, said the person, who asked not to be named because the lease details aren’t public. The 10-story building has a total of 345,992 square feet. Facebook’s space could accommodate about 2,000 employees.
Mike Hubbard, a principal with Capstone Partners LLC, the property’s Portland, Oregon-based developer, declined to comment, as did Genevieve Grdina, a spokeswoman for Facebook.
Facebook leased 3 million square feet of office and data- center facilities worldwide as of 31 December, according to its annual report. That includes 1 million square feet for its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The company had 9,199 employees at the end of 2014.
In Seattle, Facebook currently leases about 100,000 square feet at the Metropolitan Park East building downtown. The space houses more than 400 workers.
Several of the largest technology companies, including Apple Inc and Google Inc, have expanded in the Seattle region in recent years because of its engineering talent pool and lower costs relative to the San Francisco area.
Seattle market
Seattle had the nation’s fifth-lowest office-vacancy rate out of 79 major markets in the fourth quarter, according to property researcher Reis Inc. The city’s rate was 12.5%, compared with the US average of 16.7%. Seattle was 10th for one-year growth in effective rents, or what tenants paid after any landlord discounts, Reis data show.
Capstone and its partner on Dexter Station, San Francisco- based Stockbridge Capital, began construction on the project in 2013 without a signed tenant. It was the first speculative office development in the Puget Sound region since 2008, they said at the time. Stockbridge executives didn’t immediately return calls for comment.
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is the leasing broker for Dexter Station. Andrew Neilly, a spokesman, didn’t immediately return a call for comment. Bloomberg
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