The company blames working from home as a result of the pandemic as the reason for abandoning the lease - but we're sure the state's rising taxes, impending real estate market crash and conversion of the property to a temporary homeless shelter in March likely helped contribute to the decision making.
Either way, Pinterest wanted out of the lease so badly they were willing to fork over a hefty sum to ensure they would not be held to it. The company's total lease obligations for the property would have amounted to $440 million.
Pinterest's CFO told the San Francisco Chronicle: “As we analyze how our workplace will change in a post-COVID world, we are specifically rethinking where future employees could be based. A more distributed workforce will give us the opportunity to hire people from a wider range of backgrounds and experiences.”
Pinterest appears to be following in the steps of companies like Facebook, who has also embraced the idea of remote work for its staff. Facebook aims to have half of its company working remotely "within a decade", CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said.
To us, it appears to be more of a statement about San Francisco's real estate market than about Pinterest. After all, the company was the first and only lease commitment "in San Francisco’s 230-acre Central South of Market district, where numerous large commercial and residential projects have been approved after the city raised height limits last year," the Chronicle said.
They were to help contribute to 30,000 new jobs and 20,000 new residents in the district, which the city hoped would fuel more than $2 billion in public benefits. The project is "now in doubt". The proposed 88 Bluxome project was supposed to start construction this year, but current plans for the project are now "unclear".
Not good for any Democrat run city.
Question. Which metropolis will be the first one to see the light and expel its Progressive political class? And will they do it in time?
For about 12 years I have said that CA's economy is based on main 3 industries; movie making, high tech, military.
ReplyDeleteThese days anyone can make a movie on a computer, Hollyweird is done for. CA has little to none control over military. Tech is the last industry.
Real estate is possibly the last hurrah but that is residential. Residential will always be active but can be highly volatile. Obviously occupants are necessary and net growth requires influx from outside the state. (I don't think residential can be considered an industry upon which to base growth - there first must be economic attraction.)
Commercial real estate, including hotels are in the poorhouse and falling. Empty retail office space is everywhere. Shopping malls are wasting away or being repurposed. Investors are hedging against the state. I seriously doubt these are short term effects. (No one invests $ tens of millions and higher for short term gains in RE in CA and expects a double digit ROI.) Heavy regulations are chasing intermodel into neighboring states, or San Bernardino County as the last bastion.
Spring 2020, a consortium led by a CCP held company closed on four luxury hotel properties. Their plans for upgrades are on hold. They have put three properties on the market and they're not moving. Or maybe they have but it's been a tough slog to sell, probably at a loss.
Wait until the low interest climbs again. Current holders will make a fortune, if they can hold out. Then the more rapid plunge.
If you can't tell by now, I am in CA. It is a special delight to me to see the state failing. My hope though is that conservatism rears up before CCP gains a stronger foothold. (In 2016, over 60% of residential buyers were national Chinese. In 2019, it was down to just above 40%.) China gaining a solid position on the North American continent is what scares me. It should scare every American in every state.
RE: failing. Not the state per se, but this current socialist government. I want to see it crash, burn, hauled out of the ashes and hung by the neck until dead. Then shot in the head. Every last one of them. Their homes leveled, trashed, incinerated. Well, that's for starters.
DeleteAlso, even though the CDC (formerly loved by the leftists) has now stated that, 'If you're not infected and haven't been in contact with an infected person, you do not need to be tested.', Guvna Gruesome has lost that loving feeling for the CDC. He has said everyone will be tested. His initial aim is 150K tests per day. And the schools will stay closed.
ReplyDeleteCouple that with big advances in telecommuting, I see a renewed mass exodus. Already, CA stands to lose perhaps 4 seats in the House. Already, TX looks to gain 3 seats in the House.
Side note: You in the free states, Beware: this exodus is gonna add strife to other states. Stand your ground. Perhaps them who flee CA will be amenable to being talked out of their leftist ways. But ya gotta do the talking. Ewww, yes you have to talk to them. Think of it it as hate the sin, not the sinner.
The Progressive flight blight has already turned my beloved NC from deep red to a pastel purple.
DeleteCalifornia was a progressive magnet in the 1950s when I was in High School. Many wanted to "Go West" to hang 10, smoke pot and be a Beatnik styled on Jack Kerouac. The Vietnam war hastened the process due to the high concentration of military members (most conscripts) in the state. Now thanks to the uber-liberal education several generations are well beyond ideological redemption, but they're not immune to economic stagnation. That's the perfect storm to spreading the progressive virus throughout the country.
I live in NW Indiana & we get many people moving here from Illinois,specifically the Chicagoland area because they're pissed at what is happening there because of 80 solid years of Dem control. But now t that they've moved inhere they are right back voting for Dems! I guess sheep will be sheep. Texas is starting to have the same problem I hear
DeleteMy little part of NC has seen a ton of NYers. They ain't easy to talk to.
DeleteI'd suggest we use the feral hog hunting technique employed in several Southern states on the feral Progressive invaders, but unlike the rioters in Portland I'd be subject to arrest for a hate crime.
DeleteCDC has published an article in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, May 2020 issue, that says masks are ineffective in the prevention of the transmission of disease. CDC has also quietly admitted that only about 6% of the deaths that have been attributed to Covid were a result of Covid. It has also been quietly admitted that the overwhelming majority of people that have tested positive for Covid were false positives. The tests were way to sensitive.
DeleteIn short, we have been lied to, as I have said for several months. It's time for Redfield, Fauci, and Birx to go into well deserved oblivion. They should also be prosecuted for their lies.
Question 2: What is Pinterest doing with 90 million it can toss out?
ReplyDeleteThese cities and states are like a Titanic captain ordering flank speed AFTER knowing they are hitting the iceberg. They won't back down until it is way too late to retreat. They may back up and hit it again, harder. The political class are experts at dodging responsibility and misplacing blame. And their voters, as a whole, aren't much better. Individual voters who tried to reverse course realized they have no influence, and can only abandon ship.
ReplyDeleteAnybody here buying that song and dance by the Pintrest CEO?
ReplyDeleteIf you live in one of those red states being invaded by refugees form the blue states, get involved in two things via your personal outreach - the elections this year, either with monetary support but with some sort of personal involvement; and go visit some of the newcomers with a few of your friends in a 'welcome wagon' kind of way - explain why the place they've moved too has remained attractive and that they really should vote in a manner in which it will stay that way.
ReplyDelete