Facebook has leased all the office space at the landmark Farley Building, a 1912 Beaux Arts former post office in Manhattan, in a deal that marks a major expansion of the company’s business operations in the city. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by Facebook Inc. and the property’s majority owner, Vornado Realty Trust.

The social media company has closed a long-discussed deal to lease 730,000 square feet of the historic Farley Building in Manhattan, in an apparent vote of confidence as real estate firms worry that businesses won’t need expensive office space if people don’t go back to the office after the pandemic.

Facebook’s decision to go ahead with the deal to lease a large amount of office space for thousands of workers signals that more big tech companies are likely to continue paying rent, even after Facebook and Google told employees many workers who can do their jobs remotely should plan to do so until 2021 and Twitter said people will be able to work from home indefinitely.

Facebook has acquired more than 2.2 million square feet of Manhattan office space in less than a year, all between Penn Station and the Hudson River.

Manhattan’s West Side has become a hub for Silicon Valley tech companies as Apple, Amazon and Google have leased space for thousands of employees, buttressing the city’s “Silicon Alley” moniker. 

Facebook spokeswoman Jamila Reeves said Farley will be a tech and engineering hub that will allow the company to grow teams in New York that before were located in the company’s San Francisco and Menlo Park headquarters in California.

The leased space in the Farley Building is expected to open in late 2021, Reeves said. Manhattan is Facebook’s largest operation on the East Coast, with just over 4,000 employees, more than half of whom are engineers, she said.

The lease reinforces New York’s position as the nation’s second tech hub, said Steven Roth, chairman and chief executive of Vornado. “Facebook’s commitment is a further testament to New York City’s extraordinary talent and reinforces New York’s position as the nation’s second tech hub,” Vornado CEO Steven Roth said in a statement.

Source- Reuters