Meta Subleases Another 100,000 Square Feet in Downtown Austin

UPDATED 6/7/23 at 5:28 pm

Meta is subleasing over 100,000 square feet of space at 300 West Sixth Street in Austin, The Real Deal has learned.

The move comes seven months after the parent company of Facebook decided to sublease 589,000 square feet at Sixth and Guadalupe, setting off a string of major subleases by tech tenants in the state capital. Commercial brokers across the city have been on edge as a downturn in the tech sector and increasingly permanent work-from-home setups spell doom for Austin’s offices.

Meta’s lease covers space on the 15th, 16th, 17th and 21st floors of the building. Most of the term runs through July 2029. Cushman & Wakefield has the listing.

“The future of work is here and we’re embracing it at Meta,” a spokesperson for the firm said in a statement. “Our aim is to build a best-in-class remote work experience to help everyone do the best work of their careers no matter where they are.”

300 West Sixth Street was built in 2001 and renovated last year as office demand has shifted to amenity-rich new construction. The 23-story building sits in the heart of downtown, not far from the Frost Bank Tower and Lady Bird Lake. It has a 9,800-square-foot floor up for lease, according to Endeavor’s website.

In April, Austin’s office market hit its highest vacancy rate since the Great Recession, and sublease vacancy increased nearly 30 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to JLL. Austin’s office market now has roughly 6 million square feet up for sublease, according to Steve Triolet, a research and market forecasting expert at Partners Real Estate.

Other high-profile subleases in recent months include TikTok’s decision not to occupy 6 floors at Cousins Properties’ 300 Colorado, and Workrise backing out of 47,000 square feet at One Eleven Congress.

A representative for Endeavor did not respond to a request for comment.

This story was updated to include a statement from Meta that was received after publication.