Sigma Computing adds to footprint in SoMa

Tech companies across the Bay Area may be whittling down their business offices. Not Sigma Computing.

The San Francisco-based software firm has leased 30,000 square feet to add to its 53,000-square-foot headquarters at 116 New Montgomery Street in South of Market, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Financial terms of the seven year lease were not disclosed.

At the start of last year, Sigma Computing had an 8,000-square-foot office in a 1980s-era building in SoMa. But as the company doubled its headcount, it launched a search for enough space for more workers. It found it along New Montgomery.

Then the company had to search again. Its new lease at the Jamestown Properties-owned building brings its new SoMa headquarters up to 83,000 square feet.

The deal was brokered by Charlie Hanafin and Matt Shewey of JLL, who represented Jamestown. Stephen Cisarik of Newmark represented Sigma.

Orla Clifford, vice president of operations, said Sigma has seen exceptional growth on all fronts. The data analytics platform has added 180 hires since the spring, to 390 total employees, to support its expanding user base.

Unlike other tech companies that have shed office space for in-home work, Sigma relishes face-to-face office work, she said. A majority of its workers indicated in a companywide survey during the pandemic that they missed in-person collaboration, she said.

Despite an investment in new offices, the company still allows a flexible office schedule based on employee preference.

It’s a small success story for San Francisco’s beleaguered office market. The city’s office vacancy rate is currently hovering at about 25 percent, up from a single-digit rate pre-pandemic.

Market insiders now predict citywide vacancies to rise to 28 percent in the first half of next year.

Pinterest, among the first tech companies to put the brakes on office expansions at the dawn of the coronavirus pandemic, became the latest San Francisco tech firm to shed office space. The image-sharing web firm will not renew its lease for two floors at 410 Townsend Street in SoMa.

— Dana Bartholomew

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