Facebook is expanding its Pittsburgh operations with a lease on a four-story building under construction in the Strip District, a company spokesman confirmed Saturday.
Anthony Harrison, director of corporate media relations for the Menlo Park, Calif., social media giant, said the company leased space in the building, dubbed District 15, going up at 15th and Smallman streets in the Strip. He would not say how much of the building is under lease or how many employees would work there.
“We have leased the additional space in Pittsburgh because we are excited about the quality of tech talent in the Pittsburgh area,” he said.
RDC Design + Build Inc. of Bridgeville is constructing the $15 million, 100,000-square-foot building, featuring
18-foot first floor ceilings, a public plaza, fitness facility, electric car charging stations, and 150 parking spaces, according to the company website. Calls to the company were not returned.
Facebook’s Oculus division, which designs virtual reality systems, in 2016 moved into Schenley Place, an office building on Bayard Street in Oakland.
It announced in July that is was collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University to open an artificial intelligence laboratory on the CMU campus.
Pittsburgh has become a destination for several of the world’s largest tech firms, including Google Inc., which employs hundreds of people in the East End’s Bakery Square; Apple Inc., which will lease office space in the Strip District’s 3 Crossings complex; and Uber Technologies Inc., which created an autonomous vehicle research center in Lawrenceville, among others.
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bob at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobbauder.
