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According to the San Francisco Business Times, the Warriors will get a high-profile new neighbor when the Chase Center opens in 2019. Car-hailing company Uber has bought space at the office buildings under construction as part of the arena development on Third Street.
In addition to the 18,000-seat arena, the enormous Mission Bay project includes 580,000 square feet of office space between two buildings, which Uber will now occupy at least half of, as the Business Times has it.
(In all, the Chase Center project covers 11 acres.)
This on top of two high-profile Bay Area office projects Uber is already in the midst of, including a pair of buildings under construction just a few blocks away from the arena and their much ballyhooed expansion into a historic but long neglected building in downtown Oakland.
Whereas Uber previously planned to house thousands of its employees across the bay, it now appears that the company has, by and large, forsaken the town for Warriors adjacency.
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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf told East Bay Express that Uber broke the news to her a week ago, noting that the company’s Oakland workforce will end up being less than 10 percent of the originally predicted 3,000 employees.
Alas, not only are the Warriors leaving Oakland, now they’re blocking the shot on other big-name tenants.
Schaaf downplayed the snub, saying that Uber will still put a “prime office location [...] back into full use.”
- Uber Buys Stake In Arena [SF Business Times]
- Uber HQ In 1 Million Minutes [Curbed SF]
- Uber Takes Out $8 Million Oakland Permit [Curbed SF]
- Uber Not Coming To Oakland? [East Bay Express]
- Uber president Jeff Jones is quitting, citing differences over ‘beliefs and approach to leadership’ [Recode]