Visa puts 190K sf headquarters in San Francisco on sublease market

Visa has listed its Downtown San Francisco headquarters for sublease before a planned move to a new hub just south of Oracle Park.

The San Francisco-based credit card issuer has put its 190,000-square-foot office at One Market Street on the sublease market before its move to a new complex in Mission Bay, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Potential terms of the five-floor sublease in the Embarcadero were not disclosed.  

The listing, among the largest in the city, will dump thousands of square feet on the office market, where vacancy has hit a record 32.7 percent during an era of remote work, according to Savills. 

By itself, the listing will add 0.22 percentage points to the city’s vacancy rate, the Chronicle reported.

Visa’s move, however, has nothing to do with cost-cuts or working from home.

The payments giant had cut a deal in 2019 to move to a 13-story, 300,000-square-foot headquarters now being built in Mission Rock.  The 28-acre mixed-use project, developed by the San Francisco Giants and New York-based Tishman Speyer, sits across McCovey Cove from the Giants ballpark.

The building at NEC 3rd and Mission Rock streets has more than 50 percent more space than its current hub, Visa told the Chronicle. As of 2019, 650 Visa workers were based at One Market Plaza, while the 210-foot Mission Rock tower is expected to serve 1,500 people.

One Market Plaza is among the biggest office properties in the city, with 1.6 million square feet in two towers, or 200,000 square feet more volume than Salesforce Tower. 

The building, owned by New York-based Paramount Group and Blackstone, was 96.6 percent leased at the end of last year. It generates $151.7 million in annual office rent and $2.8 million in retail and restaurant rent, according to Paramount filings.

In January, Autodesk listed 73,000 square feet for sublease, citing a rise in flexible work. The Visa and Autodesk sublease listings add 16.4 percent to the building’s vacancy rate. 

In January, Visa listed a 64,000-square-foot office at 385 Sherman Avenue in Palo Alto for sublease as part of its Mission Rock consolidation. 

The company still has a major office in Foster City, where it was formerly based.

In a similar move in 2019, Uber relocated its headquarters from Mid-Market to Mission Bay, putting its former hub at 1455 Market Street up for sublease.  But after 3.5 years, the rideshare company has had no takers.

Meanwhile, Block, Reddit and WeWork have vacated or plan to leave the building.

— Dana Bartholomew