Pinterest Commits to Office Expansion in Silicon Valley

Pinterest is making a big office move in Silicon Valley.

The social media giant signed a long-term lease for an entire 125,000-square-foot office building at 285 Sobrante Way in Sunnyvale, CoStar reported. The firm’s other Silicon Valley location is at 395 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, where it leases 60,000 square feet.

Pinterest also renewed its headquarters lease for 119,000 square feet at 651 Brannan Street in downtown San Francisco through 2029.

The expansion is a notable reversal for a company that spent the early pandemic years shedding office space.

Pinterest paid $125 million to terminate its 148,000-square-foot lease at 505 Brannan Street in San Francisco and didn’t renew leases for some office locations, including 410 Townsend Street, while subleasing or terminating deals for others. Pinterest also closed its offices at 149 Bluxome Street near its downtown San Francisco headquarters.

LBA Realty acquired 285 Sobrante Way last June for $42.3 million, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. The building had been in receivership for nearly a year after its previous owner, a joint effort between SteelWave and Principal Real Estate Investors, defaulted on a construction loan. The JV bought the property in 2019 for $28 million and received $59.6 million in construction loans from Citizens Bank.

Pinterest appears to be in growth mode, at least physically, even as it makes cuts elsewhere. The company recently disclosed plans to slash up to 15 percent of its workforce this year and shrink parts of its real estate space to fund “AI-forward” initiatives, according to SEC filings cited by CoStar.

Pinterest’s shift mirrors a broader trend across the tech sector. Companies working to increase AI capabilities are reasserting the importance of in-person collaboration, fueling a new wave of leasing activity after years of contraction. Over the past year, Pinterest has expanded its offices in Manhattan and London and opened an outpost in Culver City.

Sunnyvale has emerged as one of Silicon Valley’s most active office submarkets as more companies return to the office.

Leasing has surged, driven largely by AI and cloud infrastructure firms chasing large chunks of high-quality space. Software company Databricks landed there last year with 305,000 square feet in downtown Sunnyvale. This year alone, Databricks has expanded its presence there twice, most recently bringing its total Sunnyvale footprint to 635,000 square feet last month. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike inked a deal for 150,000 square feet last summer.

While demand in Silicon Valley’s office market is heating back up, vacancy across the region is high, at about 15 percent, according to CoStar. — Chris Malone Méndez