Google and Facebook are often mentioned in the same breath these days, and now it seems that Facebook, like Google, may be interested in the New York real estate market. Rumor has it Facebook’s leased some space at 335 Madison Avenue.
This isn’t quite as impressive as Google’s $1.9 billion purchase of an entire office building, but Owen Thomas reported this afternoon, "Facebook has leased two floors at 335 Madison Avenue, according to a source in the real-estate industry familiar with the company’s plans."
As a result, Facebook should have a considerable presence in the same structure as big, well-respected companies like Bank of America, GE, and Salesforce.com. And Starbucks, for that matter, although the Starbucks listing we found seems to correspond to a standard coffee shop, not any sort of corporate office.
Plus, Thomas continued, "[Facebook] could expand to as much as 150,000 square feet in the building, our source estimates."
That sort of move would likely signal a huge advertising push on the social network’s part. Which might in turn be part of the process of taking the company public, if you’re willing to look farther down the figurative road.
It should be interesting to see what happens here.