Coinbase Leases Office Space Formerly Occupied By Meta

Coinbase — the cryptocurrency exchange that announced in 2021 it would abandon a physical headquarters and move towards “remote first” — has leased 40,000 square feet of office space in Silicon Valley, according to a market report by Savills.

The lease is at 391 San Antonio Road in Mountain View. The property is known as The Village at San Antonio Center and has served as a hub for large tech companies. New York-based Brookfield Properties purchased a large portion of the center in 2021 for $630 million, which was the largest deal in Silicon Valley that year. Months after the Brookfield acquisition, Boston-based TA Realty acquired a Safeway and three other retail buildings within The Village as well.

At the time of the purchase, the parcel on 391 San Antonio Road and another at 401 were leased to Meta. However, Meta terminated its leases for 457,000 square feet of office, which was scheduled to last through 2034. In more positive news for the Village, Yahoo leased 80,000 square feet of office in April. The office space is located at 391 San Antonio, the same address as Coinbase.

In 2021, Coinbase announced its embrace of remote work and abandoned a physical headquarters. This led to the closing of its San Francisco office, which served as the company’s headquarters up until that point. While the company cited employees’ desire to continue working remotely, the plan was to retain some physical office space.

“Closing our S.F. office is an important step in ensuring no office becomes an unofficial HQ and will mean career outcomes are based on capability and output rather than location,” the company said in a statement. “Instead, we will offer a network of smaller offices for our employees to work from if they choose to.”

Coinbase’s decision to lease new space bucks the recent trend of large tech companies offloading offices in Silicon Valley. The availability rate increased to 26.6 percent in the second quarter, up from 23.1 percent in the first quarter, according to Savills. Available sublease space has also continued to increase, ending the quarter at a new “historical high” of 7.6 million square feet, up 55 percent from 4.9 million square feet reported a year ago. The largest office giveback came from Google which put more than 1.4 million square feet on the market for sublease.

“With the entire technology sector in a correction, office availability in Silicon Valley is at an all-time high and is expected to increase even further as return to office rates have lagged the rest of the country despite high-profile corporate announcements,” the Savills report said.