Apartments will be built for Facebook employees

The residential complex will be located next to the headquarters of the social network, on the territory there will be all the necessary services, as well as a spa and swimming pool Anastasia Agamalova Everett Katigbak / Facebook

The world's largest social network Facebook intends to build a residential complex for its employees near the company's headquarters in Menlo Park in California. The social network announced that it is in discussions with local development company St. Anton Partners is constructing 394 “residential complex units,” the project is estimated at $120 million, writes The Wall Street Journal. The project called Anton Menlo with an area of 630,000 sq. m. ft. will include everything from a sports bar to a doggy daycare.

As Business Insider clarifies, 35 studio apartments, 208 one-bedroom apartments, 139 two-bedroom apartments, and 12 three-bedroom apartments for the company's top managers will be built in the residential complex. The apartments will be sold at market prices, and several of them will be allocated for low-income employees.

The landowner and project developer is St. Anton Partners. The design bureau is handled by the KTGY Group architectural bureau. Facebook is funding just 15 units of the development, which will be offered as low-income housing. Construction will begin this month and will last about two years.

Even in Silicon Valley, where technology companies compete for employees by offering benefits and good offices, Facebook's initiative breaks new ground, writes WSJ.

As Facebook notes, the new residential complex in Menlo Park will be able to accommodate only 10% of employees. Some employees were already interested in real estate near the company’s office, a representative of the social network noted, since there is a shortage of residential space in Menlo Park. Real estate prices are soaring in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, rising 24% in the Bay Area in the fourth quarter of 2012, DataQuick data shows.

The development of such a project brings back memories of the so-called “industry towns” at the turn of the 20th century, in which American factory workers lived on land owned by their employer and were provided with housing, healthcare and any necessary services, the WSJ notes. However, spending a lot of time in the “clutches of the company” did not always have a positive effect, the publication writes: one of the reasons for the disappearance of such cities in the end was that they were “too domineering” towards employees. In 2013, the disadvantage may be that management will expect constant work from their subordinates.

One of Facebook’s corporate goals is to provide its employees with everything they need, the social network notes: there is no need to worry about transport, there will be laundries, dry cleaners, hairdressers, and a bicycle service center nearby. The company's plan is to make its employees feel more like they're on a college campus than in an office.

"The beauty of this is that it's very close to our campus," said John Tenanes, Facebook's director of real estate and an architect involved in planning the project. "It's a five-minute bike ride away," he adds.

When completed, the residential complex will include a convenience store, café, sports pub, bicycle shop and repair with storage, a pet spa with a dog daycare center, an indoor and outdoor health center, yoga and staff training center, swimming pool, spa and other services.

How the United States reshaped the global oil market

The collapse in oil prices has left many market participants frantically searching for answers to the questions: what is the reason for the fall in prices, how low they can fall and when they will recover. The answer, in short, is this: you should forget about the price above $100 for a long time