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Elon Musk signals Twitter HQ pullout from San Francisco

Noncommittal pose comes as city probes alleged “Twitter Hotel” for late-night workers

A photo illustration of Elon Musk and 1355 Market Street (Getty, Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0 - via Wikimedia Commons)

A photo illustration of Elon Musk and 1355 Market Street (Getty, Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0 – via Wikimedia Commons)

Twitter appears ready to jump ship and steal its headquarters away from San Francisco.

Elon Musk, speaking virtually at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in London, gave a noncommittal answer to an interviewer’s query if the company will stay at 1355 Market Street, in Mid-Market, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing the Associated Press.

Many took it as a signal the social media platform would follow the fate of Musk’s Tesla car company.  

In 2021, Musk moved the corporate hub for his electric car and solar panel maker from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas, after a spat with Alameda County health officials over reopening a Tesla factory at the start of the pandemic.

“Site selectors joke that Musk has been the gift that keeps on giving,” John Boyd, principal at The Boyd Company, told the Business Times last year in discussing his latest research on HQ relocations and what it could mean for a possible Twitter move.

Musk had previously  taken aim at San Francisco before and after his $44 billion takeover of Twitter last October.  The question is: where would Musk move the social media firm?

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San Francisco officials are now investigating Twitter based on allegations by former employees that Twitter broke laws in turning its headquarters into a “Twitter Hotel” for employees working late into the night.

The idea was to create sleeping quarters for workers pushed to stay up late working on the platform after Musk fired or laid off nearly 80 percent of Twitter’s employee base. 

Twitter leases 463,000 square feet across eight floors at 1355 Market Street, owned by San Francisco-based Shorenstein, according to a lawsuit the landlord filed in January over nonpayment of rent. 

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Shorenstein said Twitter failed to pay $3.36 million in rent for the last month of December 2022 and a $3.49 million rent payment for January, the lawsuit said. Landlords of an Oakland skyscraper have also sued Twitter over nearly $1.3 million in unpaid rent.

— Dana Bartholomew