EMERYVILLE, CA—The partnership of Harvest Properties and Invesco Real Estate has signed Yelp to a 102,324 square foot lease at 55 Hawthorne Street in San Francisco. The deal is Yelp's first lease with Harvest and Invesco. Lease terms were not disclosed.

Yelp will occupy approximately 74% of the 11-story, 138,092 square foot office tower which was built in 1970 and features 17,000 square foot floor plates and a five-level, 348 stall parking garage. The company also negotiated the right to expand by another 34,000 square feet by 2018.

"Yelp was founded in San Francisco 10 years ago, and we're committed to keeping our home base in the city and continuing to fuel the local economy with jobs and employee spending," said John Lieu, head of facilities at Yelp. "Our company has been fortunate enough to see continued growth, and we're excited to be opening an additional San Francisco office space at 55 Hawthorne Street, or 55 as we affectionately call it, located within walking distance of Yelp's existing headquarters."

Harvest and Invesco acquired 55 Hawthorne Street in July. Concurrently, Invesco also acquired the adjacent property, 631 Howard Street. Together the buildings make up an office development known as Howard Hawthorne. Upon closing, Harvest positioned 55 Hawthorne in the leasing market to offer over 100,000 square feet of full floor space to attract many of the large tenant requirements in SOMA. In two and a half months, the Harvest team was able to stabilize 55 Hawthorne and successfully converted Howard Hawthorne into a fully leased project.

In accordance with its repositioning plan, Harvest Properties will transform the Yelp floors into modern, open-ceiling creative space and expand the building's window-line. Other tenants at 55 Hawthorne Street include Dell and the Greater Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The property is one block from the thriving Second Street Technology Corridor and just a few blocks from the massive Transbay Project that is dramatically changing the landscape of downtown San Francisco. This lease represents an expansion beyond Yelp's current square footage at the new Montgomery Street location thereby increasing Yelp's presence in this burgeoning neighborhood with tenancy at both buildings.

"We are thrilled to add such an impressive high growth company to our tenant base," said John Winther, founder and managing partner of Harvest Properties, "Their significant expansion in the South Financial District is a testament to the strength of that dynamic sub-market."

Mark Geisreiter and Charlie Withers of CBRE represented Harvest and Invesco. Tim Kazul and Jon Wittemyer also of CBRE represented Yelp.

Yelp Inc., is an online platform that connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across 29 countries.

Instant Insights /

Yelp Takes Space at 55 Hawthorne Street

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