Uber Spent A Ridiculous Amount Of Money To Fix Up Its New Office Space In San Francisco
In fact, Uber spent more than any other San Francisco-based tech company on renovations and remodeling last year, according to home renovation startup BuildZoom and data from the San Francisco Department of Building Inspections.
Back in July 2013, Uber agreed to a 10-year lease for the entire fourth floor (88,134 square feet) at Hudson Pacific Properties' 1455 Market Street building, which is also home to mobile payments startup Square.
All in all, Uber's construction project cost the startup over $12 million, according to the SFDBI. So just what made this project so expensive?
For one, the space is huge. Taking that into consideration, it's no wonder why Uber spent a bunch on structural partitions (room dividers), fancy millwork and finishes, fire sprinklers, and more. It's also worth mentioning that the above figure does not include what Uber actually paid just to lease the space.
Meanwhile, fellow startup Square spent roughly half that amount renovating its new space on Market Street, only focusing on things like drywalls and doors for its modern entry.
BuildZoom developed this list by analyzing data from the SFDBI, an entity responsible for regulating remodeling and construction activities within San Francisco City and County. It then filtered the permits by offices, nature of work, and price.
"The address associated with the permit and floor or suite number defined in the description were then reconciled with news articles detailing company re-locations that would make sense from a timeline perspective," BuildZoom co-founder Jiyan Wei explains to Business Insider via email.
Y Combinator-backed BuildZoom has raised $1.41 million in funding to date.