Facebook Moves Into Housing Business

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Social media giant Facebook is entering the real estate business.

Facebook is partnering with developer St. Anton Partners to build a 394-unit apartment complex within walking distance of the company's Menlo Park campus. The 10-acre complex, dubbed Anton Menlo, will include a sports bar, bike repair shop, yoga center and a pet spa.

Facebook employees will get first crack at renting the apartments, but the project will be open to the general public.

"The beauty of this thing is that it's extremely close to our campus," John Tenanes, Facebook's director of real estate, told the Wall Street Journal. "It's a five-minute bike ride... You don't even have to put on the brakes."

Facebook's "amenities team" is working with the developer "to create an environment that mirrors the atmosphere of its corporate campus, where employees are encouraged to mingle and share ideas," according to the Journal.

Menlo Park and the surrounding communities are famous for the lack of affordable housing. The project is redeveloping industrial land and described as the largest apartment development in the city in 20 years.

The complex will include 35 studios, 208 one-bedroom units, 139 two-bedroom units, and 12 three-bedroom units. Fifteen of the units will be set aside for "low income housing."

Earlier this year Facebook received approval for a Frank Gehry-designed expansion of its main campus.