Salesforce Expansion Plan: Company Signs Largest Long-Term Lease In A Decade, New Campus Revealed (PHOTOS)

On Friday, Mayor Ed Lee announced that Salesforce -- a global enterprise software company -- signed a lease with the city worth nearly $340,000 for 400,000-square-feet of office space on 50 Fremont Street in downtown San Francisco. The agreement marks the biggest long-term lease in the city in a decade.

"Salesforce.com’s decision to continue their expansion in San Francisco is positive proof that our city and its workforce are perfect for growing technology and innovation companies," said Mayor Lee in a statement. "I look forward to watching Salesforce.com's continued success as we work together to continue to create jobs right here in San Francisco."

(SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS)

The new building at 50 Fremont St. is estimated to create space for about 2,000 employees, infusing much-needed jobs into San Francisco. Mayor Lee, who has pushed to expand San Francisco's business presence with his Start Here, Grow Here, Stay Here campaign, expressed palpable excitement over the lease.

Friday's announcement came as the latest development in Salesforce's massive expansion plan that now includes campuses in San Mateo, downtown San Francisco and Mission Bay. (Surely soon to be known as the business plan that ate San Francisco.)

Though the acquisition of 50 Fremont St. will be a major move for Salesforce, the most impressive details of the company's expansion plan are at the Mission Bay campus -- Salesforce's Global Headquarters. The 14-acre property (right near the ballpark) is set to include four separate buildings with two million square-feet of offices, retail spaces, plazas, restaurants, childcare, parking and an enormous outdoor television screen to broadcast public programming.

Unlike other business campuses, the Salesforce headquarters will be open to the neighborhood, allowing residents to access the businesses, public space and childcare, supplying a major source of revenue for the area.

Though the designs are not finalized, architecture firm Legorreta and Legorreta has released the initial plans for the Mission Bay campus. Check them out in our slideshow below:

Comments

[templescroll]

12:36 PM on 01/12/2012

S.F. becoming fodder for Ed Lee. Does he really care if the buildings are earthquake safe or not...or even look good? Maybe he'll make his cronies rich and line his pockets with some new chums while in office. Seriously, I hate to say I told you so...wait a few more months for the corruption & scandals to leak...its gonna make sensational headlines!

[MoistPup]

12:28 PM on 01/12/2012

...purple...

[stumanchu35]

10:07 AM on 01/12/2012

As many of the tech titans before, soon enough the largest asset the company will have is the property it owns.

[looknmirror]

11:58 PM on 01/11/2012

does anybody know how the mission bay district growth is handling the landfill/earthquake/building flop--over scenario...?

[maguro 01]

10:59 PM on 01/11/2012

The difficulty with some of the buildings in the slide was that this is an earthquake area and it makes no sense to ignore that. I believe the Mission Bay area is fill land also. Earthquake-resistant structures can doubtless be attractive, they need not be stunts that could be pulled off easily enough in non-earthquake areas. The city would be in error to approve that kind of thing.

In addition, one thing all of us in California had better be planning for is to be less backed up in disasters by Washington, especially if the government in Washington turns over this fall. Washington has been an insurer in effect for some time and one result has been development of hazardous sites from California to Florida. After the government of 2001-2009 and the 2008 crash US finances have changed for at least a couple of generations to come and perhaps permanently since the rest of the competitive world will not sit still.

All of us here in the SF Bay area had better pay a lot more attention to making our lives more earthquake resistant than we have been. Every new major quake has some surprises in store.

[MoistPup]

12:29 PM on 01/12/2012

Mission Bay is actually built on nothing but Jell-o. Bill Cosby was the original developer.

[chi01]

07:19 PM on 01/11/2012

U.G.L.Y. you ain't got no alibi, it's jusy UGLY!

[larmarch5]

04:21 PM on 01/11/2012

Is this at Mission and Freemont? The pictures looks like waterfront, but it's several blocks to the South Bay from there?

[Matthew Harrison Tedford]

07:19 PM on 01/11/2012

The story is about Mission and Fremont, but the photos are from their Mission Bay campus.

[heiblog]

08:09 PM on 01/11/2012

Matthew is correct. 50 Fremont, which the story is about is already in place and is, I think, the 3rd or 4th tallest building in SF. Tall, white marble, not too bad to look at, but nothing spectacular. It is in the heart of the re-development for the Transbay Terminal stuff (commuter hub). It has been there a long time and is only a few blocks away from their HQ on Market Street. Bechtel used to occupy that building (maybe still do). The photos are the Mission Bay proposed campus.

[getsit]

03:27 PM on 01/11/2012

So much for businesses leaving California! That old myth. And locating in the liberal bastion of San Francisco where they have single payer health care for low income people and businesses have to contribute. Imagine that.

[pleurothallis1]

06:12 PM on 01/11/2012

I KNOW! ME TOO! THE NERVE!!!!

[DHILLCA]

12:56 PM on 01/11/2012

The Mission Bay Development is the most uninspired architecture in San Francisco.

[JordanPerry]

12:05 PM on 01/11/2012

This shiny new corporate campus really makes the deck of the Titanic look great.

[tyrant510]

10:02 AM on 01/11/2012

dreadful. this is san francisco, not miami.

[jagrmeister721]

01:27 AM on 01/11/2012

OK I looked it up here; it's $340M, not $340K as HP reports above.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/06/BU9K1MM1P3.DTL&type=tech

[larmarch5]

04:12 PM on 01/11/2012

Thanks. I thought less than $1 per sq. ft. sounded pretty funky.

[pleurothallis1]

06:13 PM on 01/11/2012

Thanks for the info. Even I, who is so not savvy around these kinds of things found the $340,000 for 400,000 sq ft to be exceedingly low................

[danholmes]

07:29 PM on 01/11/2012

Heck...I was ready to move up there after that deal. It's $3-4 a sq/ft down here in Si Valley

[jagrmeister721]

01:26 AM on 01/11/2012

> $340,000 for 400,000-square-feet

Downtown SF for <$1 sq foot??

[mkg489]

02:13 PM on 01/11/2012

The City hopes for incrementally increasing tax revenue that they will issue bonds against.

It's Voodoo math by the politicians.

[shakabra]

09:56 AM on 01/12/2012

Wrong! Nice swipe at "the politicians," though.

[CenaW]

07:14 PM on 01/11/2012

sloppy article, like so much we are expected to read these days.
$340, 000, 000

[beccasmecka]

11:29 PM on 01/10/2012

Worst place to work EVER!

[norcal surfer]

12:08 AM on 01/11/2012

Sorry you feel that way, my wife loves it.

[sf girl]

11:18 PM on 01/10/2012

I hope it isn't going to be painted on those neon colors.

[beccasmecka]

11:27 PM on 01/10/2012

ha - those colors are specific to Marc Benioff. He has a "colorist" and now insists that these shades are used on EVERYTHING. It was only 6 years ago....it's hideous now.

[sf girl]

02:51 AM on 01/11/2012

Wow, I had no idea.