Databricks to Occupy 150K sf of New Offices in Downtown SF

Databricks plans to take up a ton of bricks in San Francisco’s Financial District with a 150,000-square-foot expansion of its offices.

The local cloud-based platform provider plans to occupy the offices at 1 Sansome Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

It’s not clear whether it has signed a lease with Barker Pacific Group and PGIM Real Estate, owners of the 42-story, 624,100-square-foot building.

The deal includes a long-term lease, with an option to expand by 50,000 square feet, according to one Business Times source with insight into the agreement.

It would be one of the largest deals done in San Francisco this year, behind JPMorgan’s renewal-expansion for 280,000 square feet at 560 Mission Street, according to the publication.

Three years ago, Databricks renewed a lease for its headquarters at 160 Spear Street, while expanding it to 120,000 square feet. It has been looking to add between 150,000 square feet and 200,000 square feet “for some time,” according to the market sources.

The firm told employees early this year it was negotiating a new lease at an undisclosed location that would “dramatically expand its office presence,” the San Francisco Standard reported.

Databricks has employed the same incremental expansion in Bellevue, Washington, growing its office footprint there three times over the last two years, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

The company announced in December it had raised $8.6 billion of a $10 billion Series J round, valuing the company at $62 billion.

It’s the kind of tenant that could help Downtown rebound from a five-year slump led by tech companies’ shift to remote work, emptying 37 percent of San Francisco’s offices.

The vacancy of the building at 1 Sansome Street, revamped during the pandemic for $25 million, was undisclosed. Improvements included the addition of Holbrook House, a bar and a restaurant next to a nearly 16,000-square-foot atrium for up to 2,000 people.

— Dana Bartholomew