Facebook has gone from tenant to owner by paying $202 million for their 57-acre Menlo Park campus at 1 Hacker Way, according to the San Francisco Business Times. Only in Silicon Valley could such a considerable sum be considered a bargain price. Consider this: Sources tell the SFBT the figure was agreed on in 2011, when the social networking behemoth first leased the property from Sun Microsystems. To calculate what it would be worth today, look at the comps: Facebook paid nearly $400 million in February for 56 nearby acres.
The SFBT report points out that this sale was long expected; after all, the option to buy was forged when Facebook leaders signed the lease. What's interesting is that this is just a small piece of a huge development puzzle. The report contains a litany of plans for other properties: a 430,000-square-foot office designed by Frank Gehry; two more Gehry-designed buildings that are in the works; a 180,000-square-foot warehouse being converted to offices; proposals to potentially develop the former Prologis campus into offices, homes, and retail space. And there are hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space that the company is still leasing.
The SFBT says Facebook officials wouldn't comment for the story; but the report did reference company documents that say growth is trending. Facebook reports the employee headcount has grown from 8,348 in 2014 to 11,996 this year and that growth would "continue for the foreseeable future." At this rate, there will be a desk for all of them.
· Facebook goes from rent to own in Menlo Park in $202 million deal [San Francisco Business Times]