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Will Twitter's new headquarters revitalize the Civic Center area of San Francisco?
Twitter is relocating its headquarters to 1355 Market Street. Currently, the central Market Street is a blighted area. Will this change with the arrival of Twitter?
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3 Answers
The anticipated arrival of Twitter has already attracted tenants including Zendesk. Twitter had real life followers when they occupied 795 Folsom as well, and that wasn't the best area a couple years ago. That being said, the Civic Center has a long way to go.
The most significant impact from Twitter moving to the Civic Center has been and will be the tax breaks granted to companies of a certain size that lease space within the new tax zone. If a company and the building they lease fall under the new regulations, that company does not have to pay taxes on new employees for up to 6 years.
Police will be ramped up, including a new station in the area to help revitalize the space.
At this point, moving to the Civic Center only makes sense if a company needs to scale, but once the hundreds of Twitter and Zendesk employees move down market, frequent the restaurants and coffee shops and commute to and from work, more companies will follow.
Given the amount of vacancy in SOMA and upward pressure of rents in and around the area, combined with the nearly 3M square feet of tenant demand (stemming largely from the tech industry), the mid market area will be a welcome release for the tech tenants looking for affordable real estate in SF. As rents in SOMA creep above $50/sf, many young start ups will migrate to areas that are more affordable yet can offer an environment that is both cool/non traditional and cutting edge. Mid market will hit the nail on the head - that said, Twitter is not slated for occupancy until mid 2012 at the earliest. While many tenants have wanted to look closer at this area, many will likley have to wait until early 2013 to see this area change for the better...
I hope that the impact is similar to what building a downtown baseball stadium for the San Francisco Giants did. The area used to be blighted as well, but now is thriving with new businesses.
Twitter's relocation was due to an exemption to a San Francisco law that taxes business 1.5% of payroll if the company's payroll is over $250,000. This exemption applies to any businesses in the mid-Market or Tenderloin neighborhoods.
Mayor Ed Lee said, “We launched our Central Market revitalization effort with the goal of restoring Central Market as a center for arts, retail and innovative industries.”
The website, www.centralmarketpartnership.org, will serve as a place for community members to provide the city with feedback about economic development efforts as well as information about neighborhood news and events and about programs and resources in the area.
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