Deep Ellum News
Uber puts up most of its office space in Deep Ellum building for rent
In not-so-great news for Deep Ellum, Uber Technologies is leasing out most of its office space inside the Epic building at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Good Latimer Freeway.
According to BisNow, the company put 117,000 square feet of space on the sublease market, which is nearly all of its space with the exception of two floors, where a few hundred employees moved in early 2020.
A real estate research company spokesperson told BisNow's Kerri Panchuk that "it's always concerning when an anchor tenant like Uber lists that much space at once."
Uber originally signed on to lease 168,000 square feet across seven floors. They've also started building out yet a second office tower, The Epic II, next door.
As recently as February, Uber was in hiring mode, retaining recruiters to hire 3,000 employees for its Deep Ellum offices. Then the COVID-19 fallout came. An Uber spokesperson told BisNow in March that they would be "temporarily pausing construction" in Dallas until 2021, but that they didn't anticipate any longterm changes to their strategy or expectations regarding growth in Texas.
A spokesperson for Westdale Real Estate Investment, the developer for The Epic, told BisNow that Uber will still move into The Epic II in 2022, and is subleasing its office space in Epic I because that space is unlikely to be used between now and then.
Uber is not the only Epic building tenant with troubles. Spaces, the coworking firm, and its parent company Regus have filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a number of their locations across the country. Coworking spaces have been hit hard by the pandemic.
But the Westdale spokesperson said that Uber will be in a strong position as the economy turns around, stating that the reasons they decided to relocate to Dallas including labor force and business-friendly environment are still in place.
