Facebook to grow West Side fiefdom with giant Farley Building lease

The move would bring the social media giant’s New York City footprint to more than 3M sf

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a rendering of the Farley Post Office building redevelopment (Credit: Getty Images, SOM)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a rendering of the Farley Post Office building redevelopment (Credit: Getty Images, SOM)

Facebook’s deal for office space at the Farley Building isn’t dead.

The social media giant is in talks to lease 700,000 square feet of office space at Vornado Realty Trust’s conversion of the James A. Farley Post Office, according to the Wall Street Journal. Apple had also reportedly been looking into leasing space at the office redevelopment.

Facebook’s potential deal comes on the heels of the 1.5 million-square-foot lease it signed at Hudson Yards last month. A lease a Farley would make the social media company one of the largest office tenants in the city.

Read more

Facebook’s presence would help to make up for the loss sustained by the city earlier this year, when Amazon abandoned plans for a Long Island City headquarters because of community opposition. According to experts, Facebook’s presence will lead to 14,000 jobs — more than half the 25,000 tech jobs Amazon had initially promised.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

After the Amazon debacle, experts speculated that Amazon’s rejection of New York City would lead other tech firms to shun the five boroughs. But tech giants show no intention of leaving New York City, with Google, Apple and Spotify all leasing office space in the last two years.

Tech-sector jobs grew four times as fast as private jobs from 2009 to 2018, according to an analysis by an economist at The New School. Those high-paying jobs have also led to increased demand for rental housing, dining and ride-hailing services. [WSJ] — Georgia Kromrei