Facebook’s Company Town

(by Reed Albergotti, The Wall Street Journal) – Facebook Inc.’s sprawling campus in Menlo Park, Calif., is so full of cushy perks that some employees may never want to go home. Soon, they’ll have that option.

Renderings of Facebook’s planned Anton Menlo Community housing.

The social network said this week it is working with a local developer to build a $120 million, 394-unit housing community within walking distance of its offices. Called Anton Menlo, the 630,000 square-foot rental property will include everything from a sports bar to a doggy day care. 

Even in Silicon Valley, where tech companies compete to lure coveted engineers with over-the-top perks and offices that resemble adult playgrounds, Facebook’s plan breaks new ground.

A Facebook spokeswoman said employee retention wasn’t a major factor in the real estate push. “We’re certainly excited to have more housing options closer to campus, but we believe that people work at Facebook because what they do is rewarding and they believe in our mission,*” she said. [*From the fb website: “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”]

Some employees had inquired about places to live near the corporate campus, she said, amid a housing shortage in Menlo Park.

Real estate prices are skyrocketing in Silicon Valley, and in San Francisco, up 24% in the fourth quarter of 2012 in the Bay Area…

The development conjures up memories of so-called “company towns” at the turn of the 20th century, where American factory workers lived in communities owned by their employer and were provided housing, health care, law enforcement, church and just about every other service necessary.

Spending more time in the clutches of the company sphere isn’t necessarily positive. One reason the old company towns eventually disappeared was that they could be overbearing to workers. In the 2013 version, the downside could be unspoken expectations that employees always be working.

Facebook’s plans are still a far cry from those steelworker and mining company towns from a century ago. Facebook employees aren’t expected to work there for their entire lives. And the new development can only house a maximum of about 10% of its Menlo Park employees.

But the move speaks to how competition is reshaping the role of corporate culture in the tech industry. …

To build the housing, Facebook’s “amenities team” worked with developer St. Anton Partners, a San Francisco Bay area, multi-family real estate developer, to create an environment that mirrors the atmosphere of its corporate campus, where employees are encouraged to mingle and share ideas.

The apartments will go for market rates, and a handful will be set aside for low income residents. All but 15 of the units will be open to non-Facebook employees.

“The beauty of this thing is that it’s extremely close to our campus,” said John Tenanes, Facebook’s director of real estate and an architect involved in the planning. “It’s a five-minute bike ride” along a dedicated path that runs along the San Francisco bay, he said. “You don’t even have to put on the brakes.”

One of Facebook’s corporate goals is to take care of as many aspects of its employees lives as possible. They don’t have to worry about transportation – there’s a bus for that. Laundry and dry cleaning? Check. Hairstylists, woodworking classes, bike maintenance. Check.

At Facebook, the company’s headquarters are supposed to feel more like a college campus than an office.

The 56-acre parcel, which it moved to in December 2011, will soon be connected to a new wing, designed by architect Frank Gehry. There is a winding asphalt road that runs through the center of campus where employees glide through on bicycles.

Throughout the workday, programmers bond with advertising product developers over free lattes or ice cream, walking around the sculptures and shops, or lounging on sun-drenched grassy knolls and park benches.

There is a company game day, where employees run the three-legged race. At night, employees watch movies on a giant, stadium-style outdoor television screen that looms over an open plaza in the middle of campus.

Lauryn Hale, a Harvard Business School graduate who was hired by Facebook in 2010, said all the amenities take some stress out of the daily job and allow her to think more creatively.

Her favorite thing to do is have a “walking meeting” with another employee, but only after grabbing a frozen yogurt at the sweet shop. “I probably love that too much” she says.

Copyright 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. Visit the website at wsj.com.