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When Facebook moves into its new offices in Mountain View this fall, it will miss an iconic asset to Silicon Valley – there will be no corporate cafeteria with free food for around 2,000 employees.
In an unusual move, the city has banned businesses from fully subsidizing office meals, which are part of the Village at San Antonio Center project, to promote retailers nearby. The project-specific requirement was adopted in 2014, which did not attract much attention as the offices were open for years.
He came in response to local restaurants that said Google, the city's biggest employer, was hurting their businesses by providing free meals, according to John McAlister, a Mountain View advisor.
"We wanted to make sure that the companies that were there were successful," says McAlister
The daily banquets of major technology companies – fresh omelets for breakfast, sushi rolled by hand for the lunch, braised chicken and kale for dinner has become legendary: Google hired its first chef about twenty years ago, while the company had barely 50 employees. Critics of his kitchen d & rsquo; Company appeared on BonAppetit, Serious Eats and Yelp.
New businesses like Facebook and LinkedIn The cafeteria staff has become a booming business for the once-dormant business catering sector, but the in-house eating places have kept customers and potential employees away from business. surrounding businesses, and municipal authorities are worried. local restaurants are struggling and potentially busy streets are empty.
The Mountain View rules for the Village Complex, meals in the offices can not be more than 50% on a regular basis. Facebook can fully subsidize employees if they go to restaurants open to the public.
"It was more than trying to make sure we did not have 400,000 square feet of office space with people who never left the building," Michael said. Kasperzak, a former Mayor of Mountain View who worked on legislation. "If we have all these restaurants, we want it to be a successful development.If employers pay for it, that's fine."
After leaving office, Kasperzak worked as a consultant for WeWork, the New York's largest operator of coworking spaces. Although Facebook is the only tenant for the moment, WeWork manages Facebook's facilities and is considering a public hall on the ground floor, according to municipal authorities.
WeWork and Facebook declined to comment on the requirement.
"We found the place attractive because of its proximity to public transportation, housing, and utilities like shopping and restaurants," said Facebook spokesman Jamil Walker. Unlike many technology campuses, the Village project is adjacent to a Caltrain station and includes housing.
The absence of an on-site cafeteria will help boost local retailers, said Steve Rasmussen, owner of the Milk Pail Market, a 44-year-old outdoor product market located in the city. outside of the future Facebook office.
"Many small independent restaurants were affected when some of these companies went in-house with their food offerings," Rasmussen said. "I think collaboration is vital, and it makes sense."
Rasmussen is in discussion with local restaurants for storing ready-to-eat meals at the Milk Pail market, which currently lacks such a tariff.
"They are very excited about what we can do to work with the young people who will come with Facebook," he said.
Mountain View was looking for other concessions from the tech giants. A November voting measure proposes a tax per employee that would hit Google the hardest. Last year, a new Google campus called Charleston East will be partially open to the public, including restaurants where everyone can dine.
Although the cafeteria layout only applies to the Facebook site, Mountain View may seek to impose similar conditions. Google's next major expansion in the North Bayshore area, where its head office is located.
Margaret Abe-Koga, Mountain View City Councilor, said it was possible for Google to help subsidize the rent of small businesses on its property or to have agreements with retailers to sponsor their businesses.
Google did not respond to a request for comment on its North Bayshore small business projects.
Abe-Koga said that the concept of tech companies offering free food was rare 20 years ago, and cities were in favor of businesses in business parks having their own cafeterias because that reduced the traffic. With projects such as Village at San Antonio, which now offers a mix of housing, offices and retail, it is essential to bring people out of their offices to attend nearby businesses. .
Mountain View's neighbors have no plans to impose similar requirements on employee cafeterias. Vice Mayor Cupertino, Rod Sinks, said it was already common to see Apple employees dine at local restaurants; the company charges meal costs to employees, which makes the outside offers relatively more attractive. Apple is more concerned about the secret: It has built a glassy restaurant that looks like one of its gadget shops on Alves Drive in Cupertino. A standalone building, just steps from some Apple offices. Although the building is on a shopping street, the public can not enter unless it is an employee's guest.
In San Jose, there is no ban on companies offering free food, with the exception of the town hall. When it was designed more than a decade ago, it was feared that a cafeteria there would be competing with local food companies, so the city did not build one. . The Adobe headquarters in downtown has partially subsidized cafeterias.
Near San Jose's Diridon station, Google is planning another huge development. According to Nanci Klein, deputy director of economic development in San Jose, there was no question of restricting subsidized meals.
Chris Foley, co-owner of Market, a food hall located under Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, hopes that someday the city will follow the example of Mountain View. Restaurants have opened their doors in the Mid-Market neighborhood in the hope of attracting technology business customers, but a number of them have closed their doors and struggled. If there were no meals served inside these offices, it would greatly benefit restaurants and food vendors like those in the market, he said.
"Having (technology workers) in their offices and not engaging with the community is not really good for the community or those small businesses," Foley said.
Zendesk, a customer support software company located a few blocks from the market, does not offer a free meal. Instead, CEO Mikkel Svane recommended employees to go to nearby restaurants such as Farmerbrown. Once a month, the company pays for a group of employees to try a new restaurant, said spokeswoman Courtney Mundell. – The San Francisco Chronicle / Tribune News Service
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