Twitter’s landlord is suing the social media giant for failing to pay rent at its downtown San Francisco office, according to reports.

The company owes around $136,260 in unpaid rent, according to its landlord, Columbia Property Trust, which filed the lawsuit last Thursday.

Low-angle view of sign with logo on the facade of the headquarters of social network Twitter in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California, October 13, 2017. SoMa is known for having one of the highest concentrations of technology companies and startups of any region worldwide.

Twitter’s failure to pay rent was first reported last month, about a month and a half after Elon Musk acquired the company for $44 billion, following a chaotic legal battle.

Two people familiar with told matter The New York Times that Musk has been trying to renegotiate the terms of the lease agreement amid mass layoffs and downsizing.

ELON MUSK BECOMES FIRST PERSON TO LOSE $200 BILLION: REPORT

The downsizing continued on Friday, with Twitter closing its Seattle offices, cutting janitorial and security services, according to The Times.

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Meanwhile, cleaning and security staff were laid off from the company’s New York and San Francisco offices. At the latter, Musk has reduced the company’s office space from four floors to two, according to The Times.

FOX Business has reached out to Twitter for comment. A spokesperson for Columbia Property Trust declined to comment.

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The case is Columbia Reit – 650 California LLC v. Twitter Inc., CGC-22-603719, Superior Court, State of California in San Francisco.

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As Elon Musk’s “hardcore” ultimatum spurred a mass exodus of Twitter’s remaining workers on Thursday night, “someone across the street” from the company’s San Francisco headquarters took it upon themselves to troll the mogul with a number of projected messages, according to NBC Bay Area. The news ticker-style taunts called Musk, among other things, a “bankruptcy baby,” “supreme parasite,” “petulant pimple,” “apartheid profiteer,” “space Karen,” and “mediocre manchild,” according to footage of the projections. Gia Vang, an NBC Bay Area reporter, attributed the messages to an individual calling themself “a projection activist.” It was not immediately clear who or what was behind the messages, but they resembled similar insults thrown up in the same place on the building’s exterior by projection artist Alan Marling on Nov. 7. In an email, Marling told SFGate at the time that “ as humans we have a moral duty to defend our neighbors against hate speech and white supremacy,” both of which he accused Musk of amplifying through Twitter. Just after 11 pm Eastern time on Thursday, Musk tweeted, “And… we just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol,” adding, in reference to an earlier meme, “Let that sink in…”

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After a particularly rocky week for tech companies diving their San Francisco real estate, at least one is reportedly bucking the trend and expanding its office space.

Asana, co-founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, is subleasing office space at 680 Folsom Street in SoMa. It’s taking over space that was previously home to Macy’s San Francisco offices, according to the Business Times. The New York retailer shuttered its offices in the city in 2020.

In 2019, Asana moved its headquarters to 633 Folsom Street, snagging a nearly 266,000-square-foot lease.

With this expansion, the productivity company is investing in city real estate during a particularly troublesome time for the tech industry at large. Meta reported troubling numbers Wednesday, including a decline in annual revenue for the first time since the company went public, while both Alphabet and Microsoft announced misses on both earnings and revenue estimates.

And due to a confluence of economic headwinds and the popularity of hybrid work, companies are increasingly abandoning their office space in the pricey San Francisco Bay Area market. This week, Twitter reduced its footprint in San Francisco and abandoned its plans to expand into Oakland, while Etsy will close its San Francisco offices for good come September due to low “employee office utilization.”

They follow Block, Salesforce and PayPal, which cut down or outright closed its San Francisco offices earlier this year.

Editor’s note: This story was amended on Aug. 2, 2:30 pm to accurately reflect where Asana’s new offices are located.

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The Golden City is losing its shine as one of the largest United States-based cryptocurrency exchanges closes its San Francisco-based headquarters.

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell retweeted an announcement stating that the exchange will close its global headquarters at 548 Market Street, in the center of San Francisco. In the statement, a copy of which was initially tweeted by San Francisco-based political commentator Richie Greenberg, Powell states:

“We shut down Kraken’s global headquarters on Market Street in San Francisco after numerous employees were attacked, harassed and robbed on their way to and from the office.”

A spokesperson from Kraken told Cointelegraph that their “responsibility has been, and always will be, to ensure the safety and security of our team members,” adding that Kraken has “no plans to establish a new, formal global HQ” following the San Francisco closure.

A poor advertisement for living in California’s financial center, the statement also alleges that “San Francisco is not safe” and crime is “dramatically underreported.”

BREAKING: KRAKEN CEO Jesse Powell @jespow today issued a statement regarding rampant crime in San Francisco and the failures of DA @chesaboudin . pic.twitter.com/7gx7PldQM0

— Richie Greenberg (@richieSF2016) April 7, 2022

Coinbase, another US-based cryptocurrency exchange, also wants to close its San Francisco headquarters in 2022; however, no mention of crime or homelessness was cited regarding the decision. Instead, Coinbase is following the lead of its competitor Binance to become a fully remote, global company.

The Kraken spokesperson explained to Cointelegraph that Kraken was “one of the first companies in the world to pioneer the remote-first model.” The focus on “round-the-clock crypto services,” especially relevant given that crypto markets are 24/7 is key. Kraken continued:

“While we [Kraken] have no plans to change our status as a US-based entity, the location of our headquarters doesn’t affect how we run our business.”

The Twitter community was quick to respond to the Kraken news, sharing dark anecdotes of working in San Francisco.

I worked at Market St for few months, it is crazy, it turns into skid row after 6pm. I’m from Europe and never seen anything like it. Still have flashbacks of the things I witnessed. Just tried to look away and not get stabbed. Remember walking in the smell of skunk and pee.

— Markus (@markustallinn) April 7, 2022

The living situation has allegedly become so dire that there are applications that track human waste around San Francisco, with “Snap Crap” among the most popular. The apps help San Franciscans navigate the city without putting their foot in it.

A San Francisco poop map. Source: ARCgis

Comments from the Twitter and Reddit community shed light on how soaring rental prices have made homelessness more common, while crime is “rampant.” The average rent is now roughly $3,000 per month, and the San Francisco Chronicle has estimated that there are more than 18,000 people experiencing homelessness in the city.

Related: Bolt to enable Bitcoin and NFT access via Wyre acquisition

A report in 2020 revealed that San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area boasted the highest concentrations of crypto investments. In light of Kraken’s decision and the social crises in San Francisco, the region’s hold on crypto and the future of finance may falter.

Other US cities and states have made clear their intentions to attract crypto capital. Texas, for example, hosts pro-Bitcoin (BTC) Senator Ted Cruz, while Web3 and crypto payments have been lauded by the mayor of Austin.

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SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–IgGenix, Inc., a biotechnology company taking a revolutionary approach to directly alleviate allergic disease, announced today that the company will be moving to Lilly Gateway Labs – a shared innovation laboratory – in South San Francisco, CA.

“We are honored to have been accepted into Lilly Gateway’s innovative laboratories,” said Jessica Grossman, MD, chief executive officer of IgGenix. “This opportunity with Lilly Gateway Labs will yield new collaborations and foster scientific breakthroughs within the allergy space. I see no better place to further our research and discovery programs than as part of the Lilly community in South San Francisco.”

In 2019, Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) announced the first Lilly Gateway Lab to speed the discovery of innovative medicines through collaboration with local biotech companies. IgGenix joins 8 other leading biotechnology companies in the South San Francisco Gateway Labs.

“The purpose of the Lilly Gateway Labs is to offer emerging biotech companies the necessary innovative collaborations to foster scientific breakthroughs that deliver new solutions for patients,” said Julie Gilmore, Ph.D., chief operations officer of Lilly Gateway Labs. “IgGenix will be a great addition to Lilly’s diverse group of biotech companies. This collaboration will work to address the unmet needs of treatment options within the allergy space.”

More than 50 million Americans have suffered from various types of allergies, the sixth leading cause of chronic illness in the United States.i IgGenix is ​​driven to develop safer therapeutic options through its single-cell discovery platform, leveraging evolutionary biology designed to target monoclonal antibodies .

About IgGenix

IgGenix is ​​a privately held biotechnology company taking a revolutionary approach to directly alleviate food and other severe allergies by reengineering key antibodies involved in the allergic cascade. Founded based on research by Stephen Quake, Kari Nadeau, and Derek Croote of a novel discovery platform developed at Stanford University, IgGenix isolates rare allergen-specific IgE antibodies responsible for allergic reactions and transforms them into IgG antibodies. These therapeutic IgG antibodies are designed to alleviate and possibly prevent life-threatening allergic reactions, saving lives and reducing the constant fear that affects people living with severe allergies.

About Lilly Gateway Labs

Lilly Gateway labs, Eli Lilly and Company’s first shared innovation lab designed to speed the discovery of innovative medicines, offers companies potential access to Lilly scientists, team members and executives, as well as exposure to Lilly’s scientific and functional expertise. With over 65,000 square feet of space, Lilly Gateway Lab has been designed with private lab modules and open areas for collaboration. Companies who work in Lilly Gateway Labs have the potential to collaborate with Lilly on projects of mutual interest, participate in shared learning forums with Lilly experts and partners, and have the potential for financial investment from Lilly and their venture network.

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Company Will Continue Strategic Expansion in 2022 With 60+ Team Additions

SAN FRANCISCO, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Totus Medicines, the drug discovery company harnessing proprietary chemical biology and AI to address previously untreatable cancers, today announced the relocation of its headquarters to Emeryville, California. The company is investing heavily in R&D in the coming months, including hiring for 60+ roles across several disciplines, including data science, machine learning, clinical development, and chemistry.

Totus Medicines’ platform uses proprietary molecular tags that track drug binding in individual cells to screen billions of drug molecules across thousands of genes in parallel. By combining this approach with breakthrough machine learning techniques, the company has developed the next generation of cellular analysis. Totus aims to screen two billion compounds throughout the human genome within the next two years to unlock precise, effective drugs across hundreds of high-value drug targets.

“We are thrilled to announce our move to the Bay Area, a transition that sets the stage for our planned rapid growth,” said Totus CEO and founder Neil Dhawan, Ph.D. “The Bay Area is a hub of innovation with a wealth of high-impact talent. I am confident that this new base for our growing team will provide a solid foundation as we further advance and scale our drug discovery platform.”

Totus Medicines’ new 35,000-square-foot facility will include office and lab space for the company’s research and development efforts. The company plans to fill 60+ new roles in R&D, data architecture, machine learning and AI, computational chemistry, and clinical development. Totus’ first drug program, TOS-358, will enter clinical trials in 2022. TOS-358 targets the PI3Kα mutation, which impacts more than 500,000 people in the US every year and drives a significant percentage of breast, colon, lung, bladder, stomach, and other cancers.

“Team Totus is composed of the best and brightest in the life sciences field that embody our values ​​— humility, collaboration, urgency, focus and agility,” said Totus Chief People Officer Daisy Chhokar. “We greatly look forward to expanding our team of industry leaders in the Bay Area, and in doing so, bring the world one step closer to finding treatments for the world’s most complex and hard-to-treat diseases.”

About Totus Medicines

Founded in 2019, Totus Medicines uses the next generation of cellular analysis to create life-changing therapies to treat previously untreatable diseases through proprietary molecular tags that track drug binding in individual cells to screen billions of drug molecules across thousands of genes in parallel. Totus is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

For more information, please visit totusmedicines.com and follow Totus on LinkedIn and Twitter.

SOURCE Totus Medicines

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VALLEJO (BCN) – The location of a proposed new police station appears to have shifted after Tuesday’s Vallejo City Council meeting when discussion on the proposed relocation of the headquarters pivoted from a waterfront location to the building currently housing the library. The council voted unanimously to explore the library site option.

Public opposition to moving the department to 400 Mare Island Way on the waterfront has been pronounced. The council appeared to bend to the backlash and is now reviewing the relocation of the police department to the John F. Kennedy Library on Santa Clara Street, directly adjacent to City Hall.

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Opponents of the Mare Island Way location cite the message it would send to visitors who will see a huge edifice to the Vallejo Police Department on prime real estate; myriad public activities take place along the waterfront, bringing in people from outside the city.

There is also concern about speeding police cars in an area with heavy pedestrian traffic, the high risk of liquefaction and rising sea levels that are projected to breach the bottom floor of the building in the coming decades, and projected and unprojected costs for the project. The building will need to be retrofitted to the tune of an estimated $30 million, which would come from a bank loan to the city.

One thing that most people in Vallejo agree on is the need for a new station for the police department. The current station, centrally located on Amador Street, is cramped and outdated, with asbestos, mold and other hazards.

Police Chief Shawny Williams said it contributes to his department’s inability to attract new hires and retain current employees.

Vallejo has held community meetings to discuss possible locations for the new headquarters and invited the public to indicate suggested places on an interactive online map. From all the feedback, the council now seems open to abandoning the waterfront idea and giving a serious look at the library.

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The costs for moving the library and remodeling its building to accommodate the police department exceed estimated costs for a waterfront station. Interim Assistant City Manager Terrance Davis presented the council with cost estimates for four locations on Tuesday.

One option is upgrading the police department’s current Amador Street location to the tune of $59.8 million plus additional costs for relocating the city’s corporation yard, which currently sits on the site and would need to be used for the expansion. Another is redoing the current site of the library, with estimated costs of $38.1 million, plus the cost of relocating the library to Mare Island Way.

The third is using city land or private land to build a station from the ground up or remodel an existing building, at $56.1 million, plus any additional costs to acquire the land if necessary, while the fourth is $30 million to retrofit the Mare Island Way building, which the city already purchased for over $13 million.

City Council member Hakeem Brown told city staff that he hopes a comprehensive plan can be prepared outlining all the factors that would go into the library relocating and the Police Department moving in so as to avoid having to backtrack midway through the plan because of unforeseen problems.

“I’d like to request that if we are looking to move into JFK, that we come up with a full game plan of what we’re doing,” Brown said, who previously supported moving the police station to the waterfront. “I’d really like us to come up with a complete plan and not a half-baked plan, where we’re just kind of moving forward without a clear understanding of cost, time, as well as, is it even feasible?”

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — After a three-night “sleep-in” inside San Francisco Unified School District offices, teachers demanding pay from the district said they reached an agreement with the district late Thursday.

On Monday, more than a dozen SFUSD educators began the sleep-in, calling for the district to pay more than 1,000 teachers and other staff members who have gone unpaid or only received partial paychecks since January.

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The educators have said because of the payment issue, they’ve been unable to pay rent, mortgages, medical bills, and other necessities.

District officials have said that while the majority of its more than 10,000 employees have been paid correctly, a portion of educators went unpaid due to a technical error attributed to the district switching to a new payroll system, replacing an older system that had been in place for the last 17 years.

Under the agreement, the district will pay all educators owed money, as well as interest for the late payments.

Additionally, the district has promised to address any payroll errors moving forward within 72 hours. Also, the district will reimburse the affected educators for any late fees and penalties incurred.

“This occupation was the result of months and months of trying to negotiate with the district and trying to ask that folks get paid what they’re due,” said teacher and United Educators of San Francisco member Frank Lara said during a Thursday evening rally outside the district offices.

“It’s been exhausting for all of us,” he said.

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“I cannot thank enough the families and the community partners who’ve come out and offered us their food, their support,” UESF president Cassondra Curiel said. “Your help and support got management to make moves and we know we’re on the same page. Now there will be less stress and people will be paid for the jobs that they’re doing.”

“We remain committed to ensuring every staff member receives all of the pay they are owed,” SFUSD Superintendent Vincent Matthews said in a statement. “I want to again extend my deepest apologies to every employee who has been impacted in any way as a result of our transition to a new payroll system.”

According to the district, the new agreement also ensures that all employees will be able to input COVID-19 sick leave, including any sick leave that COVID-19-related that has already been taken. Additionally, the district is also offering 10 additional COVID-19 sick days of leave for employees.

UESF officials are expected to hold a rally to celebrate the agreement on Friday at 5 pm at the SFUSD parking lot, located at 555 Franklin St.

The payment issues come as the district is dealing with other financial woes — a $125 projected budget shortfall — and considering laying off hundreds of teachers and other staff to balance the budget.

Also, on Friday, district officials announced enrollment preparations for the upcoming school year. So far, 14,127 families have submitted enrollment applications, slightly up from last school year when 13,917 families submitted applications.

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© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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SnapDNA, a company that has developed technology to improve food safety, has selected Broomfield as its new headquarters, state officials announced Wednesday, joining a growing number of foodtech companies establishing or growing in Colorado.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company plans to hire up to 144 employees at an average salary of $124,573 over the coming years. Colorado sweetened the pot by adding up to $1.45 million in job-creation tax credits over the next eight years.

“SnapDNA is excited to be part of Colorado’s burgeoning centers of excellence in life sciences, technology development and product manufacturing,” said CEO David Medin in a press release. “Colorado is ideally located and central to the nation’s largest and most influential food companies; we already work with some of them… and our employees love the can-do culture and world-class outdoor activities that Colorado has to offer.”

SnapDNA “creates a food safety molecular recognition technology that enables rapid on-site detection of foodborne pathogens,” according to filings submitted to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

Austin, Texas, or a California location with a combined headquarters and development facility was also sought. When the Colorado Economic Development Commission discussed the project in September, the company had just four employees and contractors. However, the company agreed to “raise significant amounts of capital” as part of its deal with the state.

A portion of this funding came from the Rocky Mountain Venture Club, as well as the Office of Economic Development’s Global Business Development Advanced Industries grant program, which provided a $250,000 Early Stage Accelerator grant. The commissioners said the company will help with the “growth and diversification of Colorado’s food and agriculture industries, and particularly the foodtech sector.”

“Colorado is a hub for innovative technologies, including those in the life sciences and food technology sectors,” Gov. Jared Polis said in the release. “We welcome the opportunity to partner with SnapDNA to support our vital food and agriculture industries while creating more than 140 high-paying jobs for Coloradans.”

These jobs include microbiologists, production and test engineers, sales and marketing staff, and managers.

SnapDNA “invented the first self-contained, rapid, on-site analysis intended to replace laboratory testing for food pathogens. Results are available in less than an hour and hundreds of samples can be analyzed per day.” According to the press release, the technology promises “to enable predictive analysis that reduces the occurrence, risk and severity of large-scale outbreaks, reduces production costs and provide consumers with fresher, safer food”.

The state reported that 15 Colorado food technology startups received $244 million in venture capital funding last year, the sixth-highest sum in the United States

“Snap DNA joins a rapidly growing national center for life sciences and food technology in Colorado, where companies like Evolutionary Genomics, Growcentia and Myco Technology are pioneering revolutionary solutions for the future of food and agriculture,” the press release reads.

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Although Twitter has made a permanent commitment to remote work agreements, the social media giant has done so expanded its headquarters in San Francisco.

Twitter has added nearly 80,000 square feet to its existing headquarters while relocating to a different space at 1355 Market Street previously occupied by online marketplace for household services Thumbtack.

“The relocation of our offices is in line with our real estate and workplace strategy. Sometimes we extend our decision to sublet floors, while other times we take them back to use as our own,” the company said. “This strategy is about giving us maximum flexibility for our future real estate needs.”

Twitter is also currently trying to sublet space on 10th Street adjacent to the 1355 Market Street location.

The move goes against the tide of current trends that are seeing companies trim their real estate as they transition to hybrid or remote working policies.

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