London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

9 tech companies that have ditched San Francisco offices in 2022 are a warning sign for cities to rethink their reliance on big firms

9 tech companies that have ditched San Francisco offices in 2022 are a warning sign for cities to rethink their reliance on big firms

The tech exodus from San Francisco should be a warning to other cities that rely on tech companies to fill downtown office space.
San Francisco's once bustling downtown has become a ghost town as companies have left their offices. The city's office-vacancy rate grew by more than 4 percentage points from November 2021 to November 2022, to about 19%, according to Commercial Observer.

The exodus also is a double-edged sword that threatens San Francisco's financial health. A New York Times report published this month highlighted that local businesses like Mixt, a health-food restaurant, have struggled to maintain their business because high-income workers are no longer flocking downtown for their morning coffee or lunch salad.

Mayor London Breed has estimated that falling commercial property values could contribute to a $728 million budget gap over the next two fiscal years, Bloomberg reported.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Bloomberg that San Francisco needed "more diversity" in its economic and tax base, as well as more residential homes and cultural attractions downtown.

Meanwhile, layoffs have piled up at companies like Adobe, which reportedly laid off 100 employees from its marketing department in early December, and Airtable, which told TechCrunch on December 8 that it had cut 20% of its workforce. This suggests San Francisco's struggles with office vacancies may be far from over.

"The challenge in all of this is that we're kind of rebuilding to something that doesn't necessarily exist," Jeff Bellisario, the executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, told Bloomberg. "What does the new San Francisco look like? And I'm not sure we've totally figured that out yet."
Here's a roundup of major office moves in San Francisco from 2022 that indicate how dire the situation is:

Snap: Snap Inc., the company that owns Snapchat, terminated the lease on its 33,000-square-foot office in October. The company is going through a restructuring, which has included laying off more than 1,200 employees.

Twitter: People close to Twitter told The Times this month that Twitter had stopped paying rent at its headquarters at 1355 Market St. as the company, now run by Elon Musk, seeks to cut costs to improve its profitability. The paper also reported in late November that Twitter's staff dwindled from around 7,500 full-time employees to less than 3,700 since Musk took over in late October. 

Meta: The Silicon Valley Business Journal reported in early December that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was planning to part with its more than 430,000-square-foot office space at 181 Fremont St. despite having eight years left on its lease. Meta leases more than 1.2 million square feet of office space in the San Francisco Bay Area, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors during its third-quarter earnings call that it planned to spend up to $3 billion over the next two years to reduce its total office footprint by buying out leases.

Block: The San Francisco Chronicle reported in June that Block, the payment-processing company owned by Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, did not plan to renew its lease at the end of the year for a 470,000-square-foot office in the Mid-Market neighborhood as the company embraced working from home.

Salesforce: The San Francisco Business Times reported in July that the software behemoth Salesforce was making more than 412,000 square feet of office space in its headquarters available to sublease as the company embraced a strategy it called "Success from anywhere. Careers everywhere."

Airbnb: In September, the short-term-rental giant offered to sublease more than 150,000 square feet of office space in its three-story building in San Francisco's SoMa District, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The company also put more than 300,000 square feet of office space up for sublease in nearby Santa Clara, another Bay Area office hub.

Lyft: The San Francisco Business Times reported in August that the ride-hailing firm Lyft planned to let go of 250,000 square feet of office space at its Berry Street headquarters over the next year, reducing the company's total space leased in the city by more than half.

PayPal: The local news outlet ABC7 reported in April that the digital payments processor PayPal planned to close its Market Street office on June 3, leaving PayPal with no footprint in the city.

Slack: Slack, a corporate-communications company, subleased more than 200,000 square feet of office space at 45 Fremont St. in February as it moved toward a digital-first working environment, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The report said the company still held a lease at 500 Howard St., near Salesforce's headquarters.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×