Early-stage AI startups are imbuing new life into San Francisco’s Northern Waterfront, after years of “for lease” indicators dotting the post-pandemic panorama. In keeping with the San Francisco Business Times, 5 AI-focused firms — 4 backed by Y Combinator — lately leased 23,900 sq. ft on the Waterfront Plaza advanced. That is a part of a citywide pattern: AI companies are one of many few sectors increasing in San Francisco, accounting for 1.6 million sq. ft leased final 12 months and now occupying 5 million whole. (Unsurprisingly, OpenAI accounts for a sizable chunk of that general determine.)
Actual property providers agency CBRE initiatives that these scrappy startups may attain 21 million in sq. ft inside 5 years, probably halving the town’s present 35.8% emptiness price and creating tens of hundreds of jobs. “It may basically change the vibrancy of downtown,” CBRE analyst Colin Yasukochi tells the outlet. Waterfront Plaza is a five-building campus totaling 442,000 sq. ft; amongst its previous tenants is WeWork.