Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, Facebook’s new parent company, has become the latest in a mass migration out of Democrat-controlled California that’s headed for Republican-controlled Texas. The company declared that it signed “the largest ever [lease] in downtown Austin.”
According to KVUE, the lease does indeed set a record for the largest in Downtown Austin, and takes up more square footage than the entire Frost Bank Tower.
The Austin Business Journal explains that the lease includes all office space available in the city’s tallest skyscraper, which is still in development.
The report adds that the move brings several months of speculation about the move to an end, with the company committing to leasing “the entire commercial half of Sixth and Guadalupe” in addition to “the 66-story high-rise” that when finished will become Austin’s tallest building. The company has also promised hundreds of jobs will be available in Texas’ capital.
The lease currently includes 589,000 square feet covering 33 existing floors of the skyscraper.
Katherine Shappley, head of Meta’s Austin office as well as CP for commerce customer success, said that when Facebook arrived in Austin 10 years ago they had just seven employees, but has already grown to over 2,000.
In July, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be starting a “metaverse” initiative, and so redubbed the parent company’s name as “Meta.” According to an announcement the site made on Twitter, Metaverse is meant to become “a place where we’ll play and connect in 3D… the next chapter of social connection.”
Zuckerberg said at the time that his famous and powerful website “is an iconic social media brand, but… doesn’t encompass everything we do.” The tech mogul argued that “build[ing] technology to connect people” is “in [the company’s] DNA,” and that the new metaverse is a step toward pushing “the next frontier just like social networking was when we… started.”
Meta is just part of a string of California based companies that has partly or entirely shifted its operations to Texas. Elon Musk for example, announced a move of nearly all of Tesla’s operations to the Lone Star State in September. Musk cited California’s burdensome restrictions as a reason for the move.
Author: Angela Wood
