A new visualization of major tech real estate deals over the past three years shows just how much office space the industry controls in SOMA. Developed by Stamen Design and broker Kalin Kelly, the visualization finds that tech occupies about 60 percent of office space in the neighborhood, although Kelly predicts companies will soon start shifting into West SOMA between 5th and 10th Streets. The area around the Financial District also saw a heavy tech influx.
This is all part of a recent (and ongoing) boom in both tech construction and migration of companies from the peninsula into the city. The flashiest example is the in-progress Salesforce Tower at 415 Mission, which, at 61 stories, will be the city’s tallest building.
In 2012, Airbnb, Yelp, and Yammer opened offices in the city, while Zynga moved into its massive 668,00-square-foot HQ in Showplace Square. Last year, Uber paid $125 million for two parcels in Mission Bay that will include 422,980-square-feet of facilities. (It’s worth noting that Uber paid $210 per square foot for the land itself, well above the average $67 per square foot rental rate throughout the city). And Twitter, Dropbox, and Pinterest all inked major land deals recently as well.
As the Chroniclereported last week, more than 5 million-square-feet of commercial space is under construction or will be in the next year — more office space than the city built in the last 15 years. What’s driving the building frenzy? Two things, according to TechCrunch: Intense job growth in urban cores (SF’s unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in December 2014) and voter-approved tax incentives.
“Tech companies don’t have to be rampant gentrifiers,” Kelly told TechCrunch. “They can also contribute to the civic vitality of the city and keep it a vibrant place.”
Yesterday, we reported that plans for a performing arts center in the Tenderloin were nixed after the developer asked arts nonprofits to foot 50 percent of construction costs. Although the building wasn’t a tech property, it indicates a wider debate in the city about how and where space should be devoted to nonprofits and arts organizations. In October 2013, a city report found that almost 2,000 nonprofits had moved out of the city between 2011 and 2013.
[via TechCrunch; image courtesy of Stamen Design]
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