Zynga is subleasing its downtown San Francisco headquarters
Further office space in the city center is expected to be offered on the sublease market soon.
Games maker Zynga is exiting its San Francisco headquarters amid the company’s shift to a hybrid workplace model, first reported by the San Francisco Business Times. The company leases approximately 185,000 square feet of the SoMa building at 650 Townsend.
According to LinkedIn, Zynga has 532 employees in the Bay Area. A Zynga spokesperson told SFGATE that as of June 2021, only 18.5% of Zynga employees were based in San Francisco.
“In 2022, we are transitioning to a connected workplace model, where the majority of Zynga employees will work in one office an average of two to three days per week, others will remain completely remote, and a small percentage will be working full-time onsite,” a Zynga spokesperson shared SFGATE via email with. “With fewer people working full-time in a physical Zynga office, our current real estate footprint is more space than we need.”
With the company’s lease expiring in July 2031, stripping down the office space won’t come cheap. Chief Financial Officer Gerard Griffin said in a conference call last week that the company faces an $82 million charge due to the “impairment of our existing lease and related lease improvements.”
Beacon Capital Partners owns the building and also leases space at the address to Airbnb. The vacation rental company announced in May that it also plans to sublet its 287,000-square-foot space.
Zynga will continue its San Francisco presence at the offices of Chartboost and Echtra, the companies acquired earlier this year. The company also announced it would continue to lease office space in San Mateo.
The Zynga spokesman said the decision to sublet its San Francisco office space will not affect future hiring decisions.
This is just the latest Bay Area tech company to announce it’s giving up a large office space. Salesforce, Twitter, and Pinterest have all taken similar steps.
