Airbnb to put 150K sf office in SF’s SoMa up for sublease

Airbnb has posted the ultimate house share with a sublease of a 150,000-square-foot office building it occupies in San Francisco.

The short-term rental company has put the three-story office building up for sublease at 999 Brannan St. in South of Market, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The sublease would extend to June 2026.

Airbnb has occupied the building, owned and previously occupied by Dolby Laboratories, for six years.

The move comes days after it put a 301,000-square-foot office complex up for sublease in Santa Clara.

The listings are the latest step for the tech firm to downsize its San Francisco campus in the era of remote work.

Last spring, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced a fully remote workplace, saying company employees will have the freedom to live and work where they please.

“We made changes to our office footprint to reflect our approach to allow employees to live and work anywhere, but San Francisco remains our home and 888 Brannan will continue to serve as our global headquarters,” a spokesperson told the Business Times in an email.

The company still leases a 280,000-square-foot headquarters building at 888 Brannan St., a block north of its new sublease. Unidentified sources told the Business Times its headquarters lease expires next year.

Airbnb said in a second quarter letter to shareholders that its restructuring charges included $89 million for lease assets related to office space deemed no longer necessary as a result of its “Live and Work Anywhere” policy.

The company said its worldwide restructuring plan included a “25 percent reduction in the number of full-time employees, or approximately 1,800 employees, as well as a reduction in the contingent workforce and amendments to certain commercial agreements,” according to a regulatory filing.

Airbnb has jettisoned four of the five offices it once occupied in the Showplace Square area of SoMa.

Last May, it listed 290,000 square feet at 650 Townsend St., which once served as game-maker Zynga’’s headquarters. In June 2020, the company also listed for sublease 78,565 square feet at 650 Seventh St. and 61,455 square feet at 808 Brannan St.

The office vacancy rate in San Francisco was 22.4 percent in the second quarter. The city’s overall sublease availability has been around 8 million square feet for the past year after peaking at nearly 10 million square feet in early 2021, according to Colliers.

— Dana Bartholomew