Zuckerberg announces 3 new Facebook tech hubs - Atlanta, Dallas Denver (sales, real estate)

[ATLfromJAX]

Surprised this didn't make bigger news. Before, the Atlanta Facebook office announcement last year was to upgrade their sales office from a measly 5,000 sq ft to something like 15,000 sq ft.

This sounds like something bigger. But no timeframe has been given yet.

For comparison, Google is occupying 475,000 sq ft and Microsoft is taking 523,000 sq ft.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/21/fa...s-remote-work/

"Part of Zuckerberg’s vision, announced Thursday, includes the surprise announcement that Facebook will be setting up new company hubs in Denver, Dallas and Atlanta."


https://commercialobserver.com/2020/...ooks-wfh-play/

"In particular, Facebook is planning to hire engineers in three cities — Atlanta, Dallas and Denver — with the idea of creating a hub of Facebook employees over time. “We want to create some scale, we want to focus the recruiting energy in some cities where we could get to hundreds of engineers so there could start being a community,” Zuckerberg said."

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by ATLfromJAX

Surprised this didn't make bigger news. Before, the Atlanta Facebook office announcement last year was to upgrade their sales office from a measly 5,000 sq ft to something like 15,000 sq ft.

This sounds like something bigger. But no timeframe has been given yet.

For comparison, Google is occupying 475,000 sq ft and Microsoft is taking 523,000 sq ft.

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/21/fa...s-remote-work/

"Part of Zuckerberg’s vision, announced Thursday, includes the surprise announcement that Facebook will be setting up new company hubs in Denver, Dallas and Atlanta."


https://commercialobserver.com/2020/...ooks-wfh-play/

"In particular, Facebook is planning to hire engineers in three cities — Atlanta, Dallas and Denver — with the idea of creating a hub of Facebook employees over time. “We want to create some scale, we want to focus the recruiting energy in some cities where we could get to hundreds of engineers so there could start being a community,” Zuckerberg said."

Fantastic news! This is probably once again thanks to Georgia Tech's presence.

Though not a tech company such as Facebook, this sounds like they are splitting up the County into thirds like State Farm did. Their almost completed center here joins similar expansions in Dallas and Phoenix, all of which have around 8,000 positions.

[markjames68]

I wonder how it reconciles with this -

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/21/2...-interview-wfh

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by markjames68

I wonder how it reconciles with this -

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/21/2...-interview-wfh

Initially when the Pandemic first emerged and the shutdowns were initiating I mainly thought it would basically be a brief interruption and most IT companies would return to their office. I was with IBM and they completely shut down their campus, enforcing WFH and made it mandatory to call for permission to access the facility. Google followed a similar strategy. Not too far away, Dell had an ambassador from China show up at their facility. On the return trip he came down with symptoms and Dell immediately shut down and enforced WFH, infact they had to buy everyone docking stations, laptops, other essentials for all employees who were not equipped (which is a pretty big investment to do so for every employee in the facility) which to me says that they intended to do this for a long time.

After being laid off I've been hunting. So far from what I have gathered in the IT industry, literally in every metro:

• All positions are starting remotely
• Many do not expect to return to the office before the end of this year.
• Some are trying to completely transform entirely to remote work.

In short, I think this industry may be transformed into a more virtual / remote environment as a result. I'm not necessarily opposed to it. I have greatly enjoyed the less congested highways in just about every metro I've been to since this has happened. I also think this means of working is so much more environmentally friendly. I have literally noticed I've had less allergy/bronchial issues since traffic has toned down.

I am however alittle worried about the other end of the spectrum. Office Space and Commercial Real Estate may end up taking a hit.

I'm unsure how it will all play out TBH. I dont really think it will change these developments. If they did, The projects here, Google, Microsoft and Facebook would have been solidified Pre-Covid 19 due to GA-Tech and Tech Village would have been a great host. It probably will however vastly change how they will conduct operations.

I am however a bit worried for existing campuses. All of them are desolate and seems that it may maintain that way for some time... Not sure what will happen to existing office space if they continue to work mainly remote.

[markjames68]

I have the feeling it will also depend on seniority. An experienced and proven developer can generally work remotely without any issue (although Agile will be a bit more challenging) but new graduates would still benefit from more structure and an office environment that can help with collaboration.

So “incubator” hubs that are associated with tech colleges might not be as impacted.

[arjay57]

I am not in IT myself but from a traffic standpoint I would prefer that people work from home. Seems to me that if Facebook thinks somebody is smart enough and dependable enough to be on their payroll, they'd be fine with them working remotely. If they don't have that much trust, they shouldn't hire them in the first place.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I am not in IT myself but from a traffic standpoint I would prefer that people work from home. Seems to me that if Facebook thinks somebody is smart enough and dependable enough to be on their payroll, they'd be fine with them working remotely. If they don't have that much trust, they shouldn't hire them in the first place.

I work from home 4X a week, I don't think it's completely feasible to have full time work at home employees working on projects, now 2 to 4x a week working at home is good. But you have to have people who are driven & good at communicating. IT unfortunately draws people who are akward socially so it's important to have regular team meetings where people communicate fully.

Also Kemp & the Ga. business community should see this as an opening & should explore partnerships to lay the infrastructure to support software companies by expanding educational opportunities around software development. Software development is lumped into computer science in a college curriculum but it is much more a technical skill acquired thru the program plus OJT. Setting up post graduate coding & coding technical training should be something the state gets behind.

[seussie]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Initially when the Pandemic first emerged and the shutdowns were initiating I mainly thought it would basically be a brief interruption and most IT companies would return to their office. I was with IBM and they completely shut down their campus, enforcing WFH and made it mandatory to call for permission to access the facility. Google followed a similar strategy. Not too far away, Dell had an ambassador from China show up at their facility. On the return trip he came down with symptoms and Dell immediately shut down and enforced WFH, infact they had to buy everyone docking stations, laptops, other essentials for all employees who were not equipped (which is a pretty big investment to do so for every employee in the facility) which to me says that they intended to do this for a long time.

After being laid off I've been hunting. So far from what I have gathered in the IT industry, literally in every metro:

• All positions are starting remotely
• Many do not expect to return to the office before the end of this year.
• Some are trying to completely transform entirely to remote work.

In short, I think this industry may be transformed into a more virtual / remote environment as a result. I'm not necessarily opposed to it. I have greatly enjoyed the less congested highways in just about every metro I've been to since this has happened. I also think this means of working is so much more environmentally friendly. I have literally noticed I've had less allergy/bronchial issues since traffic has toned down.

I am however alittle worried about the other end of the spectrum. Office Space and Commercial Real Estate may end up taking a hit.

I'm unsure how it will all play out TBH. I dont really think it will change these developments. If they did, The projects here, Google, Microsoft and Facebook would have been solidified Pre-Covid 19 due to GA-Tech and Tech Village would have been a great host. It probably will however vastly change how they will conduct operations.

I am however a bit worried for existing campuses. All of them are desolate and seems that it may maintain that way for some time... Not sure what will happen to existing office space if they continue to work mainly remote.

I appreciate your insightful and firsthand account of industry changes. A question: so long as these tech companies continue to profit, would real estate ventures really fall to the wayside for investments? So perhaps the traditional 9-5 changes for most, and architectural plans become less ambitious or something, but if real estate remains the single largest asset most persons and entities can have, would it really lead to empty and unused buildings? What's your guesses on how they'll utilize their spaces?

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by seussie

I appreciate your insightful and firsthand account of industry changes. A question: so long as these tech companies continue to profit, would real estate ventures really fall to the wayside for investments? So perhaps the traditional 9-5 changes for most, and architectural plans become less ambitious or something, but if real estate remains the single largest asset most persons and entities can have, would it really lead to empty and unused buildings? What's your guesses on how they'll utilize their spaces?

Its hard to say, infact I'm really not even 100% sure if they themselves know.

I think right now they're more so holding the cards so to speak and watching how things play out. I think investments that were already in place will likely continue, but new ones may be haulted. The pandemic can't last forever either so its not exactly like those facilities will become obsolete - but they may end up slowing down in investing in office real estate for a moment. I think (hope) most will try to avoid abandoning it however. I do know most tech roles will NOT convert to fully remote but many however that otherwise would have been onsite, probably will shift to remote if they see the model as viable.

[ATLfromJAX]

Originally Posted by markjames68

I wonder how it reconciles with this -

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/21/2...-interview-wfh

Since this interview with the Verge was done the same day Zuckerberg announced the tech hubs in Atlanta, Denver, and Dallas, I'm assuming it reconciles perfectly.

The tech hubs were announced in the same video stream as the new work from home policy.