Eight months after doubling its San Francisco footprint, Autodesk is shifting into reverse.
The software company plans to close a 117,000-square-foot office in the city’s downtown, a spokesperson told the San Francisco Business Times. It also plans to close part of an office in San Rafael, about 30 miles north of the city and the site of its corporate headquarters, which it intends to retain for now.
“Reducing and consolidating this office space allows us to reinvest in other areas of growth for Autodesk,” a spokesperson told the Business Times in an email. The decision “was made to support that effort of better collaboration and hybrid work.”
More than half the company’s employees said in a recent internal survey that they prefer to work remotely and use the office for specific meetings or opportunities to collaborate, the spokesperson said.
The closure is another blow to San Francisco’s office market, which has been hit harder by the pandemic than other large cities due in part to the Bay Area’s restrictive health orders, the city’s largest office landlord said in October. Only two Autodesk employees, both workplace coordinators, will lose their jobs, according to a state regulatory notice cited by the Business Times.
Autodesk didn’t tell the Business Times whether it would try to sublease its San Francisco outpost at 300 Mission Street or work with its landlord, Paramount Group, on a lease termination agreement. The company said last month that it would reduce its worldwide office footprint and take impairment charges of about $180 million, although that amount is subject to change.
Autodesk’s business revolves around three-dimensional design, engineering and entertainment software, not cars. The company’s Bay Area presence totals more than 600,000 square feet, including an eight-year-old office in downtown San Francisco that’s steps away from its 300 Mission Street location, the Business Times reported.
[San Francisco Business Times] — Matthew Niksa