Facebook to build a new 'integrated, mixed-use village'

After moving into a 430,000 sq.ft sprawling facility in Menlo Park, California, two years ago, Facebook is ready to expand its office space with building "an integrated, mixed-use village".

To be called "Willow Campus", the new facility will provide 125,000 sq.ft of new retail space, including a grocery store, pharmacy and additional community-facing retail.

"Working with the community, our goal for the aWillow Campus' is to create an integrated, mixed-use village that will provide much needed services, housing and transit solutions as well as office space," John Tenanes, Vice President, Global Facilities and Real Estate at Facebook, wrote in a blog post late on Friday.

"Part of our vision is to create a neighbourhood center that provides long-needed community services," he added.

Facebook envisions that construction will follow in phases, with the first to include the grocery, retail, housing and office completed in early 2021, and subsequent phases will take two years each to complete.

According to the company, "Willow Campus" will be an opportunity to catalyse regional transit investment by providing planned density sufficient to support new east-west connections and a future transit centre.

"We're investing tens of millions of dollars to improve US101," Tenanes said.

US Route 101 is a north-south highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon and Washington on the west coast.

The new campus will be in addition to the existing headquarters and will not replace it.

"Our hope is to create a physical space that supports our community and builds on our existing programmes," the post added.

--IANS

na/ksk