Dropbox, the startup that makes it super-easy to sync files between your computers, phones, and other devices, is growing. A lot. As in, they’re about to hire hundreds of people — and they’re getting an office that’s eight times larger than their current space to fit them all.
The company has just finalized plans to move from their current office on San Francisco’s Market Street across town to 185 Berry Street in China Basin, just down the street from AT&T Park. Their current office is around 11,000 square feet. Their new home: 87,000. The company plans to move into the new office early next year.
According to real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, this is the second largest tech lease in San Francisco this year, after Twitter’s agreement to lease space in Central Market.
A Dropbox spokesperson declined to comment on our report that the company is in the process of raising $200-300 million in funding at a massive, $5 billion valuation. She did, however, point out that the company is taking in a substantial amount of revenue, and that the lease wouldn’t be predicated on them raising a round of financing. Of course, Dropbox is also planning on going from 65 to around 400 employees — and all of that talent is going to cost a pretty penny as well.
For its part, the city of San Francisco is very excited about the move and the jobs Dropbox will be creating. A quote from San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee:
“While the state and the nation are focused on jobs and the economy, San Francisco’s economy rumbles forward – adding new jobs thanks to the growth of firms like Dropbox. Dropbox’s move is a significant expansion which continues the steady drumbeat of innovative, talent-driven companies which start, stay and grow right here in San Francisco. I want to congratulate Dropbox on their new San Francisco headquarters.”
San Francisco is also happy that Dropbox is renovating the space they’ll be moving into — Dropbox CEO Drew Houston says that it’s looking to turn it into a “creative space for people who love to build things.” The company is currently in the process of revamping the office prior to the move.
Dropbox has had issues recently with security glitches and a minor uproar over some changes to its terms of service, but that obviously hasn’t hampered its growth. The company’s mission of helping users keep their files synced across all of their devices is only becoming more important (services like Apple’s iCloud are constrained to Apple devices, whereas Dropbox is going for a ubiquitous approach). I’m guessing that with the new personnel and as-yet-unconfirmed funding, we’re going to see it integrated into many more CE devices, like cameras and televisions.
Dropbox will be just down the street from TechCrunch headquarters, and is also just a few blocks away from Zynga’s massive new office, which is over 270,000 square feet.
And if you’re curious to see what Dropbox’s current office looks like, make sure to check out our TC Cribs tour.
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