Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) revealed Tuesday that it had signed a contract for office space at the former Zetron headquarters in Redmond.
The transaction flies in the face of the trend that Meta (NASDAQ:META) has been establishing over the past few months, as economic headwinds have affected it and other tech titans. The Silicon Valley-based social networking company continues to express interest in the Puget Sound region after abandoning expansion ambitions in New York City and instituting companywide hiring freezes.
The deal is for 200,000 square feet of office space in the Willows Ridge Tech Center, located at 12034 134th Court NE. It was reported by a real estate agent in the second quarter, but Meta stated that negotiations were still underway and the transaction was not finalized until the third quarter.
In recent years, Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) activity on the Eastside and in Seattle has been consistent. The company has been on a leasing spree in Bellevue since 2020. In addition to being adjacent to the company’s Building X and Z projects in the Willows neighborhood, the new lease in Redmond is also near the company’s Building Y project.
The majority of the teams inhabiting the new facility in Redmond are from Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) Reality Labs branch, which represents a substantial portion of its pricey metaverse goals.
The business expanded and rented new space in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood earlier this year, primarily for Oculus teams, another subsidiary focusing on the metaverse.
The new lease in Redmond is a welcome injection of activity for the Eastside’s office real estate market, which has suffered a few setbacks due to the presence of big giants such as Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon recently announced that it would pause development on a number of projects in Bellevue, while Microsoft has opted to let the lease on a significant portion of office space in the city expire the next year.
According to job ads, Meta’s (NASDAQ:META) hiring in the region has decreased compared to the same time previous year. This year, the corporation employed approximately 8,800 people in the Pacific Northwest, significantly more than the 8,000 it anticipated by the end of the year. Once it was hiring for over 1,000 positions, but that figure has subsequently decreased to 300. When Meta originally announced hiring restrictions in May, company had over 700 unfilled positions in the Seattle area.
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