April 8, 2015
Facebook unveils plans for more office space in Menlo Park
MENLO PARK — Facebook’s campus expansion is showing no signs of slowing down.
The same week Facebook employees moved into a new Frank Gehry-designed building with a massive green roof, the social media giant submitted plans to Menlo Park for the construction of two office buildings on the 58-acres it purchased from TE Connectivity last year.
“We believe our project will positively transform this part of Menlo Park by converting a heavy-industrial site into a vibrant campus that fosters collaboration and innovation,” wrote Fergus O’Shea, Facebook’s director of campus facilities in a letter to the city last week.
Also designed by Gehry, the two office buildings would total 985,719 square feet and have a similar look, feel and height to the new Facebook building across from its main headquarters.
Facebook would demolish nine buildings on the TE Connectivity site to make way for the new buildings, one of which would include space for events that can hold as many as 2,000 people. The plans do not say how many employees the buildings could accommodate. The work to transform the site, on Constitution Drive between Chilco Street and the newly opened Facebook building, is already underway.
In December, Facebook got approval from the city to convert a 184,460 square foot warehouse building into office space. Renovation of that building, called Building 23, is scheduled to be completed in 2016. The plans the company submitted last week are for additional office space.
It’s also not the only construction the social network has in mind. Facebook is also proposing a new bridge over Bayfront Expressway for pedestrians and bicyclists, green space and a 200-room “limited service” hotel that spans 120,000 square feet at the corner of Chilco Street and Bayfront Expressway.
A Facebook spokesperson said Monday that the company had nothing to add beyond what was submitted. The proposal doesn’t include a timeline of when the buildings would be constructed but notes that the project will be completed in phases.
The social network would first construct a 523,233 square foot office space, called Building 21, along with more green space and the bicycle and pedestrian bridge. A 462,486 square foot building, called Building 22, and the hotel would follow.
Since Facebook first moved to Menlo Park in 2011, the social network has been hiring thousands of new employees and purchasing land near its main headquarters to plan for future growth.
As of December, the social network had 9,199 employees worldwide with about half working in Menlo Park. Facebook is hiring more than 540 people in Menlo Park, according to job postings on the company’s website Monday.
Jim Cogan, the city’s economic development director, said Facebook’s campus expansion will bring more jobs and property tax dollars to the city.
As Facebook purchases other companies such as the virtual reality company Oculus, Cogan said, more sales-tax dollars could flow into the city.
“When they start selling the Rift (headsets) and other devices the point of sale will be in Menlo Park and that will be really good for us,” he said.
After Facebook proposed its main campus and Frank-Gehry building, the social network also provided benefits to the community such as creating an internship program for high school students, funding a neighborhood service center, paying a police officer’s salary and more.
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