Another AI company will soon call Union Square home, continuing the neighborhood’s hot streak.
Chalk, which has a data platform that helps companies make faster predictions, has leased nearly 15,000 square feet at 55 Stockton St., the seven-floor, mixed-use building at the corner of O’Farrell.
The office marks a big upgrade for the 3-year-old company, which previously rented about 4,500 square feet in the Mission. As the old space’s constraints started squeezing the team, Chalk CEO Marc Freed-Finnegan started looking around. After seeing about half a dozen spaces, “it was really obvious that this was the one,” he said.
Union Square has the perfect mix of convenience and vibes, he said. Employees have easy access to BART and Muni, as well as gyms (“a big priority for a lot of people on the team”), outdoor space, and retail.
“This part of town went from really vibrant to being really not a fantastic part of the city, but it’s once again in a really good spot,” he said.
While the shopping district emptied out during the pandemic and has struggled to recover, it’s been on the upswing, with a smattering of new leases for art galleries, chain retail, small businesses, and bars. Tech companies, too, have started filtering in. The neighborhood’s 26.3% office vacancy rate (opens in new tab) makes it more bustling than many other parts of the city, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
“This lease is a significant milestone for Union Square, signaling its continued recovery,” said
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Sam Wasserstein, the Cushman & Wakefield broker who represented the landlord. “Chalk’s arrival, alongside other recent office and retail leases, underscores the area’s revitalization.”
It’s not all good news, though. Chalk’s new home at 55 Stockton St. recently lost its ground-floor tenant, the Nespresso cafe and store (opens in new tab), and has had a glaring vacancy in its main retail space since Coco Republic, which was open less than a year, closed in May 2023 (opens in new tab).
Still, Freed-Finnegan is hopeful that the recent retail momentum will continue and those empty spaces fill up soon. Chalk, which requires its local employees to come to the office five days a week, plans to take occupancy in the coming weeks, he added.
While declining to share the rent for his company’s new digs, Freed-Finnegan said Chalk’s investors “didn’t give us money to blow on a crazy-fancy office.” The company announced a $50 million Series A funding round (opens in new tab) in May, for a $500 million valuation.
Generally, Union Square is priced below high-rises downtown, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The average asking rent in Union Square is around $54 per square foot, versus $70 in the Financial District.
“This market is taking off right now,” said Avison Young broker Colton Hanley, who recently signed AI company Kaizen into a Union Square office. “It has cool, creative, cost-efficient spaces, in a safe neighborhood — and they’re moving fast.”
To fill its new space, Chalk is hiring for a bunch of positions, Freed-Finnegan noted. While it also has offices in New York and, soon, Los Angeles, he sees SF as the place to recruit engineers.
“San Francisco continues to have the highest concentration of the best technical talent in the world,” he said. “If you are prioritizing your career and dreaming about tech, this city is still absolutely the place to be.”