Facebook parent Meta expands in Texas with major office lease

[TEXAS] Facebook parent Meta Platforms is going bigger in Texas. The company has leased half of what will be Austin's tallest skyscraper, making the social media giant the latest major business to expand in the state.

Meta is leasing 589,000 square feet across 33 floors, a spokesperson said Sunday (Jan 9), confirming an earlier report from the Austin Business Journal. It will account for the entire commercial half of a 66-story tower under construction in the heart of Austin's downtown area.

"We first came to Austin over 10 years ago with just 7 employees, now over 2,000 of us are proud to call Austin home," Katherine Shappley, the head of Meta's Austin office, said in a statement. "We're committed to Austin and look forward to growing here together."

Meta is seeking to hire 400 more people in the area, and will have the capacity along with other space in the region for many more, the company said. The tower known as Sixth and Guadalupe is scheduled to open in 2023.

Texas has been on an economic tear as businesses seek to expand into lower-cost locales amid a broader shift to remote work that accelerated with the global pandemic.

Samsung Electronics Co announced a massive new chip plant for Taylor, Texas, in Austin's north-eastern suburban fringe, in November. A month earlier, Elon Musk's Tesla said it would move its headquarters to Austin from Palo Alto, California. Oracle transferred its main office from Silicon Valley to Austin in 2020.

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