SAN FRANCISCO–Signifying a need for larger space to accommodate future growth, Stripe inked a lease at 510 Townsend St. with Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. With 300,000 square feet encompassing the entire SOMA building, it is effectively the largest lease deal so far in 2015. Stripe is a payment processing startup, valued at $3.5 billion after its latest funding at year-end 2014.
The transaction finalized by Stripe is a long-term lease at market rates, according to Alexandria. The standalone corporate headquarters building is expected to be occupied by Stripe in 2017.
Joel Marcus, CEO and founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., tells GlobeSt.com:
“The interior is slated to be transformed into an open, collaborative but comfortable environment with personality such as a rooftop patio overlooking SOMA. We understood what Stripe was looking for and we provided it in this urban dense, amenity-rich location.”
Stripe's original space housed 40 people in 4,000 square feet. Earlier last year, Stripe moved into its current headquarters location at 3180 18th St. which houses some 215 employees, according to its website. Occupying 23,000 square feet and three floors of the landmark Pioneer Building, the space is enhanced with first and third floor garden lounges, with myriad communal workspaces throughout the offices consisting of bar tables, lounges and various nooks. The ground floor utilizes space that was formerly a garage for a professional kitchen and lunchroom with an adjacent outdoor patio. A library lounge with quiet space flanks the busy lunchroom path. On the third floor, a bar provides a central gathering place, according to OfficeSnapshots.com.
The space was designed within a fairly tight budget and an extremely tight time frame, according to the architect, Boor Bridges Architecture. A key design goal at that time was to have the office work to maintain the close-knit work environment as the company quickly grows. Apparently the close-knit environment has become too close and the fast-growing tech firm is growing very fast, hence the need for the expanded space on Townsend Street. The future space at 510 Townsend is expected to have an open scheme and similar amenities unique to Stripe but on a much larger scale. The supplied rendering shows sofa seating, a café and workstations in a collaborative, open-concept design.
“We work to create identities for companies,” continues Marcus. “This location will provide a unique identity for Stripe as it seeks out and attracts the best tech talent out there.”
Launched in 2011, Stripe's online and mobile app payment platform scales to any size transaction. Businesses using Stripe include Rackspace, Shopify, Reddit, Foursquare, DailyMotion, Lyft and others. Stripe investors include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and PayPal cofounders, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Elon Musk.
Alexandria is a REIT focused on collaborative science campuses located in metros such as Greater Boston, New York City, San Diego, Seattle, Maryland and Research Triangle Park, in addition to the Bay Area. It has a total market capitalization of $11.3 billion as of first quarter 2015.
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
