After moving from Covent Garden to Euston, Social media giant Facebook is planning to make its next move as the company is taking 227,324ft2 of office space at One Rathbone Square in London.
One Rathbone Square is a new development by Great Portland Estates (GPE), with the site previously owned by the Royal Mail, which sold the area in 2011.
Under the terms of the deal, Facebook will be occupying all of the consented office space at Rathbone Square for an initial rent of £16.9m a year. Facebook is getting the first 30 months of its tenancy rent-free as the building needs to be brought up to a Category A condition.
As per the deal, Facebook will occupy the building on a 15 year term without break, and staff members are expected to move on February 2017.
The new site is close to Tottenham Court Road station, with the area undergoing rapid changes due to the new Crossrail development, which is expected to bring faster links to Heathrow and Canary Wharf.
Facebook EMEA Real Estate head Robert Cookson said: "The move to our new offices at One Rathbone Square highlights our commitment to invest and grow our talented teams of people based in London, from engineering and analytics to partnerships and design, who help us connect over a billion people on Facebook across the world.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to occupy a high quality new development in the heart of the West End. The location has excellent amenities and connectivity, with the very best the city has to offer right on the doorstep including Crossrail once it is established."
GPE has also agreed to provide Facebook rights of first offer on the office space at 73/89 Oxford Street, W1, and the office space at Oxford House, 76 Oxford Street, W1.
