Skillz closes San Francisco HQ and relocates to Las Vegas

Skillz has ditched cool San Francisco for the blistering sands of Sin City.

The tech firm that supports mobile video game tournaments has moved its headquarters from 1061 Market Street in Mid-Market to a 36,000-square-foot office building it bought in southwest Las Vegas, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Its San Francisco lease expired in March 2020 and workers went remote during the pandemic. 

Skillz decided to invest in Las Vegas and join an exodus of office and retail tenants out of Mid-Market. The firm, with 200 employees, will maintain a satellite office in San Mateo.

Jason Roswig, president of Skillz, credited Las Vegas’ entertainment industry and labor force as catalysts for the move. Las Vegas and the University of Nevada are investing in expanding the local tech labor force.

Nevada kicked in financial subsidies for the move, said Roswig, who declined to disclose the amount. He said the talent pool in Las Vegas was a bigger draw than subsidies.

Skillz will keep its satellite offices in Los Angeles, Seattle and Vancouver.

The tech platform isn’t the first to be lured by the gambling mecca, according to the Chronicle.

In addition to attracting Bay Area residents with lower costs and no income tax, Las Vegas has  lured conventions such as Oracle OpenWorld away from Moscone Center. It drew the NFL Raiders from Oakland and the A’s may soon follow suit, though the fate of a potential tax subsidy deal is up in the air. The Nevada legislature held a special session on a bill this week, but has yet to vote on it. 

Skillz, founded in early 2020, hosts mobile gaming tournaments that award cash prizes and had 386,000 paying monthly active users in the first quarter. The company remains unprofitable, reporting a net loss of $35.6 million, with revenue of $44.4 million, down 52 percent from a year ago.

The 65,600-square-foot building that hosted its former headquarters is more than half vacant, but several leasing deals are in the works, primarily with nonprofit tenants, according to leasing agent Evan Housel of Kidder Mathews. The owner of the property was not disclosed.

Nearly one out of three offices in San Francisco are now empty during the era of remote work. In Mid-Market, Uber, Reddit and Block have left or plan to leave 1455 Market Street, and Old Navy and Nordstrom will soon close up shop.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

Commercial

San Francisco

Nordstrom to close two stores in Downtown San Francisco

Commercial

San Francisco

Office vacancy in San Francisco climbs to 30%

Commercial

San Francisco

How to sign an office tenant in SF’s highest-vacancy neighborhood