Facebook has done an about-face on nearly half its offices in Playa Vista.
The social media giant, a unit of Menlo Park-based Meta, has listed more than 130,000 square feet of offices for sublease in the Brickyard at 12105 West Waterfront Drive, the Commercial Observer reported.
A Meta spokesperson told the Observer that Facebook is subleasing the space as part of a general office consolidation — but that it isn’t pulling out of Los Angeles.
Facebook inked a deal in 2018 with landlord Tishman Speyer, based in New York, to lease 260,000 square feet of offices in two buildings. The firm paid $67.80 per square foot, putting the value of the deal at more than $17.6 million a year.
Facebook then expanded by another 84,600 square feet in 2020, according to the Observer.
That same year, tech companies led a nationwide shift to remote work during the pandemic, leading to a cascade of office consolidations, vacancies and devaluations.
Big tech and media companies have shed employees and offices, with Meta laying off thousands of workers in 2022 and last year, while spending billions of dollars reducing its office footprint.
In Los Angeles, more than 15 percent of offices available for sublease in the third quarter were from tech companies, according to Savills.
— Dana Bartholomew