Facebook planning big Seattle expansion with new office site in South Lake Union

Amazon workers will be getting new neighbors in South Lake Union as Facebook has signed a lease agreement for a space that could house a much bigger crew for the social media company.

GeekWire’s Todd Bishop tells KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz that Facebook currently has around 500 employees in Seattle working at the Metropolitan Park office complex. The new location, a development project called Dexter Station in South Lake Union, would allow for an expansion of up to 2,000 workers.

Bishop says Seattle has already become quite a significant location for Facebook.

“Seattle is the largest engineering office for Facebook outside of Menlo Park, their headquarters,” says Bishop. “So this is really a big center for them. In addition to that, they also have a big presence for Oculus VR, the virtual reality company that Facebook owns here in Seattle.”

While other tech companies have set up locations outside of the city of Seattle, Bishop says it appears that, like Amazon, Facebook wants to stay in an urban environment.

“In terms of Facebook, they’ve really planted their flag in Seattle,” says Bishop. “You’ve seen Google start in Kirkland and then establish an office in Fremont to sort of serve people on both sides of the lake. But Facebook, from the very beginning, has been in Seattle.”

Even though it’s a big increase in the number of workers, Bishop thinks the Facebook expansion in Seattle will remain focused on one skill set.

“This is still primarily an engineering office. That is the big push for Facebook here,” says Bishop. “It’s part of this broader trend of companies from Silicon Valley coming up and establishing engineering outposts here.”