File hosting service Dropbox‘s chief financial officer Tim Regan said that they were relatively quick to market with subleasing plans.
However, “the market has deteriorated, with many companies reducing their real estate footprint”, said Regan.
San Francisco has been among the slowest US markets to rebound from the pandemic as tech companies did not open their offices and promoted remote work amid mass layoffs.
Regan said during the company’s quarterly call this week that they no longer assume the company “will sublease additional space in San Francisco in the next few years”.
Podcaster Elijah Schaffer tweeted that San Francisco is getting “emptier and emptier”.
Discover the stories of your interest
“Last time I went, a man was urinating on the Twitter building and the only people on the street were angry press trying to snap photos of @elonmusk,” he posted.
San Francisco is getting “emptier and emptier” Last time I went a man was urinating on the Twitter building and t… https://t.co/f0e0UFzGe0
— E (@ElijahSchaffer) 1676632716000
“Sad what’s happened to this town and scary they think they know best for the world,” Schaffer said.
Musk replied: “Tragic. I hope SF (San Francisco) comes back from this emptiness. It is such a beautiful city with so many amazing people”.
@ElijahSchaffer Tragic. I hope SF comes back from this emptiness. It is such a beautiful city with so many amazing people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 1676677318000
In a video attached to his tweet, Schaffer said that so many businesses have closed in downtown San Francisco near his office, which is also shut.
Musk said last month that office rentals in San Francisco will further drop. Twitter has its headquarters in the city.
David Sacks, Co-founder and partner at Craft Ventures, tweeted that he got offered office space in San Francisco for the same price as 2009.
Musk replied: “It will go lower”.
Layoff wave
Amid global recession fears, San Francisco stands to lose the most as work-from-home in the last three years of the pandemic at tech companies and expensive real estate has stalled the city’s growth.
The layoff wave has swept not only startups and mid-sized firms, but also big tech companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet, among others.
So far, 380 tech companies have laid off 1,08,346 employees in 2023, according to tracking site Layoffs.fyi.
Twilio, LinkedIn, Zoom, Dell, Pinterest and Tinder owner Match are among companies that have joined the layoff bandwagon more recently in a bid to rein in the costs amid a looming global economic downturn.
Click here for a list of major companies that have announced layoffs.
