August 4th, 2008
San Francisco Office Update: Slide leads tenant shuffle South of Market
The growth, both fiscally and physically, of technology companies continues here in San Francisco as one of the top producers of facebook applications is changing addresses and taking four times the space it currently occupies.
As reported this week by J.K. Dineen of the San Francisco Business Times in the article below, Slide will be taking the top three floors at 301 Brannan, which is a wonderful building on the corner of Second Street two blocks North of the stadium and two blocks South of the 80 Freeway. Strong online success combined with venture capital financing continues to drive quite a few tech companies in San Francisco which appears to be one of the major reasons our economy is not being hit as hard as other cities regionally.
The reverberations of this lease will be felt quickly as existing tenants currently taking space within 301 Brannan will obviously be seeking alternative space ahead of Slide taking occupancy. Most notably Xoom, currently leasing 11,791 square feet on the 5th floor. Xoom has already been on the market touring of course but expect news on where they land very soon, as any opportunity for staying in the building has been eliminated.
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Hot social applications company Slide is more than quadrupling its footprint in the South of Market, taking 36,000 square feet on the top three floors of 301 Brannan St.
The firm, founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, is moving from 8,500 square feet at 612 Howard St. The new office will allow Slide to more than triple its 85-employee workforce, said CFO Kevin Freedman.
While Google and Yahoo have recently opened offices in San Francisco, Levchin wanted to start, incubate, and grow Slide in the South of Market from day one.
“There are a lot of engineers and other startup-related people who live in the city and would love to work in the city but have not had the opportunity to,” said Freedman.
Slide was drawn to the exposed brick and lofty ceilings of the former Advent Software space at 301 Brannan, Freedman said. “The vibe in SoMa is similar to the vibe you want in your startup.”
Slide, which has 170 million users, lets users create slide shows and other “bling” for social network pages. In January, the company raised more than $50 million in a round of funding from Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price, which valued Slide at more than $500 million.
Mike McCarthy and Carter Beim of Colliers International represented the ownership, Park MacArthur Associates. The CAC Group’s Gary Arabian and Jenny Haeg represented the tenant.
Arabian of the CAC Group said the tenant looked at 50 buildings, all in the city.
“I think they are a very exciting company and well managed and on a pretty good growth curve,” said Arabian.
Despite San Francisco’s higher rents and its payroll tax, Freedman said the extra costs are well worth it. “I think the benefit that we get from it significantly outweighs any incremental costs.”
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If there is anything I can do to help you as a Tenant Representative in the commercial real estate world, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.
Thanks for visiting,
Tom Poser, Jones Lang LaSalle, San Francisco
www.sanfranciscotenantrep.com
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One Response to “San Francisco Office Update: Slide leads tenant shuffle South of Market”
[...] and expanding in the face of a U.S. economy sputtering along. We have previously reported on Xoom, Slide, Nokia, Symantec and others growing or recommitting to existing space South of Market. I will be [...]