Facebook parent company Meta to expand in Austin, leasing high-rise

AUSTIN, Texas - Facebook's parent company Meta announced they are expanding in Austin.

"We certainly have known that Meta is expanding its operation. So it makes sense they would need more space like Oracle, like Google, like Apple," said Mayor Steve Adler.

The company itself is no stranger to Austin. Facebook arrived in town 10 years ago with only seven employees. That number has now grown to 2,000 and they will lease an estimated 589,000 square feet of commercial space in a brand new Sixth Street high rise. City officials are welcoming the move.

"This growth is happening in our city without our city or county offering people incentives. It’s not like where we are going out of our way to encourage businesses to expand here," said Adler.

Meta is short for Metaverse, which seeks to connect people using virtual reality and augmented reality in some cases. Although Adler welcomes the decision to expand, he hopes big tech can remember to also cater to other Austin workers who keep the city thriving.

"We really need to hope that these large entities will invest in the community and help with things like homelessness, housing, and transportation," he said.

"In Austin, we are creating a great number of jobs for people but we are not creating the jobs that we most need. The jobs we most need in our market are the middle-skill jobs," said Adler.

In the meantime, Meta is hiring. They need 400 people to work in many sectors, including marketing, human resources, and virtual reality.

Katherine Shappley, Meta Vice President, Commerce Customer Success and Head of Office Austin sent FOX 7 Austin a statement saying, "We first came to Austin over 10 years ago with just seven employees, now over 2,000 of us are proud to call Austin home. We’re committed to Austin and look forward to growing here together."

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