In a letter to California’s Employment Development Department Monday obtained by Bisnow, Macy’s Vice President of Human Resources Shamika Lackey informed the agency that it intended to lay off 831 technology division workers between April and August of this year, including 24 software engineering managers, 74 software engineers, 91 senior software engineers and 45 software technical leads.
Macy's San Francisco operations have been based in 680 Folsom St., a 469K SF tower in San Francisco’s South of Market District owned by Boston Properties. While the layoffs are bad news for San Francisco, the decision appears to be good news for the Metro Atlanta market. Macy’s is leasing 105K SF at a newly constructed, timber-framed office building known as Hines’ T3 West Midtown project. Macy’s told San Francisco employees they would be able to apply to open jobs in Atlanta and New York. Macy’s lease has been known in Georgia economic development circles as Project Northstar. It is unknown exactly how many new employees Macy’s will hire in Atlanta, where it already operates a technology office in the affluent northern suburb of Johns Creek. Given that many urban offices today average about 200 to 250 SF per employee, Macy's new tech hub could employ in excess of 400 workers. A source familiar with the deal told Bisnow that the Johns Creek office won't be affected by the 105K SF deal. "After careful consideration, Macy's offices in San Francisco will close. The functional operations that currently sit in the 680 Folsom location, including Macy's Product and Digital Revenue, .com and Macy's Technology will move into our locations in New York City and Atlanta," a Macy's spokesperson told Business Insider Tuesday.
Read more at: https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/office/macys-project-northstar-gobbling-up-in-excess-of-100k-sf-in-midtown-102809