Facebook is close to signing 260K sf at Brickyard: sources

Deal would give tech firm nearly 60 percent of 425K sf campus

Mark Zuckerberg and the property
Mark Zuckerberg and the property

Facebook is close to signing a deal to occupy 260,000 square feet at the Brickyard office campus in Playa Vista, The Real Deal has learned.

The tech firm was originally in talks to lease 120,000 square feet at the Tishman Speyer-owned complex, TRD reported in March. Sources said Facebook boosted its requirements during ongoing negotiations.

Facebook declined to comment. Tishman Speyer and Cushman & Wakefield, which is representing Facebook, also declined to comment.

With a 260,000-square-foot lease, Facebook would be taking nearly 60 percent of the 425,300-square-foot campus, located at 12105 and 12126 W. Waterfront Drive. Other tenants at the campus, designed by Gensler and Michael Maltzan, include Loyola Marymount University, which leased 50,000 square feet for its School of Film and Television early last year.

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When the Playa Vista deal is consummated, Facebook will have leased 1.25 million square feet of new space in California in just the past year. News of the advanced discussions come as the John Buck Company signed the social media giant to a 263,000-square-foot lease in Chicago, which can accommodate more than 2,000 employees.

Rates at the Brickyard campus are $5.65 per square foot, according to CoStar analytics. The larger of the two buildings, the six-story structure at 12126 W. Waterfront Drive, includes 9,300 square feet of daycare facilities, 344 tenant parking spots and a rooftop terrace area.

The social media giant already has a 50,000-square-foot office at the Playa Jefferson campus at 12777 West Jefferson Boulevard in the same neighborhood. It signed that lease in February 2016. It’s also aggressively growing up the coast. In May, the Menlo Park-based company inked a deal to occupy an entire 43-story office tower, spanning 757,300 square feet, in San Francisco’s Transbay neighborhood.

Facebook is among a number of tech companies that are scooping up large swaths of commercial space in Playa Vista. Most notably, Google is expected to move into the repurposed “Spruce Goose” aircraft hanger this fall. It signed the lease for the 319,000-square-foot space in mid-2016. Other tech firms based in Playa Vista include Yahoo and YouTube.