OAKLAND, Calif. _ When Uber finally opens its much-anticipated Oakland headquarters next year, the ride-hailing company will have a much smaller footprint in the city than local leaders and residents have been expecting.
The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company initially planned to put up to 3,000 employees in an old Sears building in Oakland's Uptown neighborhood. Now Uber says when that building opens in the second quarter of 2018, it likely will be with just a few hundred Uber employees. The company plans to lease up to half of the roughly 380,000-square-foot, seven-story building to other tenants.
Those details were first reported by the San Francisco Business Times, and confirmed by Uber to The Mercury News. The ride-hailing company says it plans to ultimately fill the building, bringing between 2,000 and 3,000 employees to Oakland as originally planned.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Monday that Uber told the city a few weeks ago about its plans to downsize its initial opening in the city.
"Uber's sole decision to initially open its Oakland offices with fewer employees than originally planned does not negate the fact this prime office location will be put back into full use and made available for rent to other businesses and non-profits," she wrote in an emailed statement, "in addition to the presence that Uber will have there."
Oakland's business community is growing, Schaaf wrote, leading to a need for new commercial office space.
"It's my job as Mayor to responsibly foster a diverse local business community so that our economic vitality and resilience aren't dependent on any one sector or any one company," she wrote. "Over the past two years Oakland has enjoyed a net gain in new businesses _ both small and large _ and several large-scale employers have announced plans to move to Oakland."
Meanwhile, Uber is expanding its San Francisco presence, buying a stake in two more under-construction office buildings to add to a previously planned space.
