The shift to remote work continues to cost companies with big San Francisco offices in a big way. Dropbox announced last month that it lost $175 million in 2022 to real estate “impairments”—assets now worth less than their value on the company’s books.
The loss is especially chilling considering Dropbox was one of the earliest companies to put its space up for sublease amid the company’s shift to a virtual office in 2020.
The city is awash in vacant commercial real estate. An analysis by The Standard found that 10 tech companies have vacated 2.4 million square feet of space in the past year—enough offices to fill the city’s three tallest buildings in San Francisco.
On the upside, new and growing companies looking to score office space in San Francisco may never find leasing and subleasing bargains as good as those offered today.
On the downside, bad news for SF companies continues to hit the wires. This week, Embark Trucks, the Nasdaq-traded self-driving software company said it was exploring an asset sale and laying off 70% of its workforce. For now, it’s unclear what will become of its Alabama Street headquarters in the Mission.
The six companies listed below have announced a reduction of their San Francisco footprint in recent weeks.
Arc'teryx
Closing SF Store
Arc'teryx shut its Union Square store this week, vacating 2,200 square feet of retail space. The Canadian outdoor apparel company opened the SF location in late 2020.
Salesforce
Reducing SF Office Space
Last week, Salesforce said it is subleasing an additional six floors or roughly 125,000 square feet of its office space as it continues to shrink its physical footprint at Salesforce Tower.
The RealReal
Closing SF Store
The RealReal, an online and brick-and-mortar marketplace for luxury apparel and goods, permanently shut several of its physical locations, including 8,000 square feet of space in San Francisco in February.
GitHub
Closing SF Office
After announcing in February that it will gradually shift to a fully virtual company structure, GitHub will transition away from its physical office spaces as its leases expire.
DocuSign
Reducing SF Office Space
In January, DocuSign said it will put 57,000 square feet of its headquarters at 221 Main St. up for lease while it holds onto 93,000 square feet of its San Francisco space.
CB2
Closing SF Store
The modern arm of Crate & Barrel furniture store closed its longtime two-floor showroom on Ellis Street in January.