Quote:US tech giants are moving towards building China-style “specialty towns,” with Facebook unveiling updated plans to build what reports say will be the company’s own “city.”

Willow Park will be built in partnership with Signature Development Group close to Facebook’s Menlo Park campus, and its employees who decide to move there will be spending most of their lives inside the behemoth’s own “state.”

Residential buildings with 1,729 apartment units, a 193-room hotel, a supermarket, cafes, restaurants, a pharmacy, and parks are proposed to be built on what is currently a 59-acre industrial lot. The new office space on 1.25 million square feet will allow the company to employ 3,400 more people at the location.

The giant clearly likes to keep its employees close as a matter of strategy, since it several years ago started incentivizing them with money to live within a 10-mile radius of Menlo Park; and Willow Park plans are not new, either, as they were first announced in 2017.

The location of the future Facebook town is an area with a large Hispanic community, and the residential units will also be available to those who do not work for the company. Out of 1,729 apartments, 320 are classified as “affordable” – with Facebook employees expected to go for the more expensive ones.

The office areas, meanwhile, will be available exclusively to Facebook, and only accessible to those it employs.

Since the plans first got unveiled, some of the criticism of the Willow Park development has been that it will worsen traffic and jobs-to-housing ratio in the area.

Local authorities in Menlo Park are yet to rubber stamp the design and let the works begin.

That Facebook’s plans are not an isolated occurrence but a Big Tech trend is evident in another project, Google’s Downtown West, that would create “a city within a city” in San Jose – mimicking what critics say is Big Tech creating “a state within a state” with its impact on overall economy and society.

Like Facebook, Google also wants to make its proposal more palatable to local communities by making some of the 4,000 apartments affordable – but the main features will be a new campus for 25,000 employees, stores, and restaurants.

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And he'll pay them with "Zuck-bucks" to buy worthless overpriced crap at his company store!

Returning to the 19th and early 20th century I see.

My mom grew up in a town in WV that was built and owned by the coal company. After they left, I think her parents bought their house for like $3.

Sounds like Apple cities in China.

Tech cult colonies...

SAS didn't go to this extreme but does have a very highly regard private school children of its employees can attend.

The houses in facebook town have all glass walls so everyone can see what you're having for dinner.

(07-10-2021 03:17 PM)Niner National Wrote:  Returning to the 19th and early 20th century I see.

(07-10-2021 04:51 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Sounds like Apple cities in China.

Yes and yes.

My relatives from the hills of East Kentucky and West Virginia already know how this is gonna turn out.

Will the town die if friends don’t come by and water it? This sounds like irl FarmVille.

(07-10-2021 06:57 PM)THE NC Herd Fan Wrote:  SAS didn't go to this extreme but does have a very highly regard private school children of its employees can attend.

That actually seems like a really good and convenient perk for employees though to me. Living in company property, not so much.

Hope this is how it turns out….

I like that they'll all be together in one place....

(07-11-2021 07:57 AM)BartlettTigerFan Wrote:  I like that they'll all be together in one place....

Good point! They won’t be hard to find…