Facebook Moving to Texas? Parent Company ‘Meta’ Signs Massive Lease in Downtown Austin

By | January 12, 2022

Even liberal Facebook is ready to evacuate the craziness of California, as Facebook’s parent company Meta has become the latest California corporation to at least partly move to Texas as it has signed a massive lease called “the largest ever in downtown Austin.”

“The lease is the largest ever in Downtown Austin and larger than the entire Frost Bank Tower in terms of square feet,” KVUE reported.

The Austin Business Journal reported the lease includes all office space in the city’s tallest tower. The skyscraper is still under development.

“Months of speculation have come to an end as California-based Meta Platforms Inc. — the parent company of Facebook — recently leased the entire commercial half of Sixth and Guadalupe, the 66-story high-rise under construction downtown that will be Austin’s tallest building when finished. The social media company has also pledged hundreds more jobs in the Texas capital,” the report said.

The lease includes 589,000 square feet across 33 floors of the skyscraper.

“We first came to Austin over 10 years ago with just seven employees, now over 2,000 of us are proud to call Austin home. We’re committed to Austin and look forward to growing here together,” Katherine Shappley, head of Meta’s Austin office and vice president for commerce customer success, told the outlet.

Facebook announced in July that it would be embarking on a “metaverse” initiative, changing the company’s new name to “Meta.”

“Announcing [Meta] — the Facebook company’s new name,” Facebook announced on Twitter. “Meta is helping to build the metaverse, a place where we’ll play and connect in 3D. Welcome to the next chapter of social connection.”

Meta is one of a string of companies in California that have moved part or all of its operations to Texas.

Elon Musk announced the move of much of Tesla’s operations to Texas in September.