EXCLUSIVE: Meta, parent company of Facebook, is closing its Frank Gehry-designed London base, Deadline has learned. It will further reduce the number of offices it occupies in London, where the tech giant has its largest staff presence outside of the U.S.
The news Meta is shuttering its sizable HQ at One Rathbone Square, in the city’s upmarket Fitzrovia district, comes shortly after it paid £149 million ($189 million) to break a long-term lease on another office, close to London’s Regent’s Park.
Meta moved into Rathbone Square in 2017. It has housed marketing and sales teams as well as engineers and developers. It has also been the location for a dedicated incubator space for start-ups.
After the Rathbone Square exit, Meta’s UK presence will be concentrated on two existing locations, in Brock Street, close to Euston, and nearby Kings Cross.
Meta told staffers about the change in December. It confirmed the office closure to Deadline. “We’re looking forward to consolidating our teams at Rathbone Square into our recently opened King’s Cross campus and our newly expanded Brock Street office,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
There was a dramatic headcount reduction at Meta through 2023. The company said there would not be any reduction in UK staff numbers because of the Rathbone Square office closure, which comes as the company reduces its UK property footprint after cutbacks and a move to hybrid working.
Last year Meta opened a new campus in Dublin, which is its official international headquarters, and it employs about 2,000 staffers in Ireland. The last filings, from 2022, showed Meta had 7,000 employees in the UK, but that was before deep cuts that have reportedly taken that total to below 5,000.
The above-mentioned King’s Cross campus was opened by King Charles and Queen Camilla (then the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall) in March 2022 after a three-year build.
Meta’s lease on the Rathbone Square office reportedly ran for fifteen years. It would not say whether it is required to compensate the property owners for moving out.
Rathbone Square was sold to Deka Immobilien in February of 2017 for £375 million as part of a deal between two of the German company’s real estate funds. Deka told Deadline that it has not received any payments from Meta to cut short its lease. It would not comment on Meta vacating its offices but said it is confident it can quickly re-let the property if necessary. Given the move will take place over coming months, the situation around any potential associated costs Meta will incur remains unclear.
Last September, London Land, which owned office space close to London’s Regent’s Park that was being refurbed for Meta, said the Facebook and Instagram parent would pay it £149 million to break the lease on the property. Meta staffers had not even moved into the offices.
https://deadline.com/2024/01/facebook-instagram-parent-company-meta-shuttering-another-london-office-1235695228/
