Mayor Lee Opens Zendesk in Central Market & Announces New Office Expansion
Zendesk Doubles Size of New Central Market Office & Will Grow to 150 Employees This Year; Mayor Launches New Revitalization Tools for Central Market District
8/30/11—Mayor Edwin M. Lee today officially opened Zendesk, a leading developer of cloud-based help desk software, in Central Market and also announced that Zendesk has just completed a lease immediately doubling the size of their San Francisco location. Zendesk will now occupy 35,000 square feet at 989 Market Street, moving from their original South of Market offices. Zendesk plans to grow to 150 employees this year alone. Zendesk is the first tech company to open on Central Market since the adoption of the Central Market and Tenderloin Area Payroll Tax Exclusion in April.
“I am proud to officially welcome Zendesk to Central Market and want to congratulate them on their new expansion and creating jobs at a time when we need them the most,” said Mayor Lee. “We launched our Central Market revitalization effort with the goal of restoring Central Market as a center for arts, retail and innovative industries. I want to thank Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane for his leadership in bringing Zendesk to Central Market and his commitment to San Francisco.”
“We are very excited to be in our new headquarters,” said Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane. “Earlier this year, we had started to outgrow our office space in SoMa and knew we would have to move. But, we were committed to staying in San Francisco. We are very enthusiastic about the vision the city has for making Central Market a better place to work and that we get to be a part of that. It is great to be here, and we are looking forward to giving back to this city that has been so generous to us.”
Mayor Lee also announced the launch of a new website to coordinate revitalization efforts for the Central Market district: www.centralmarketpartnership.org. The website will include communications about neighborhood news and events, a place for community members to give feedback on the City’s economic development efforts, and information about the programs and resources that the City and its partners are implementing in the district.
“There are so many people, businesses and organizations, like Zendesk, that are working to revitalize the Central Market neighborhood,” said Mayor Lee. “This new website will enable the City and its partners to be even more effective at coordinating activities, promoting the neighborhood, increasing access to resources, and creating new partnerships.”
The website also enables people and companies that are searching for office or retail space in Central Market to browse existing properties that are available, and access contact information for those properties. In order to provide online access to Central Market real estate data, the City is partnering with Rofo, a San Francisco-based technology company that simplifies the search for commercial real estate and tenants.
“We’re honored to be partnering with the City in a way where our commercial real estate platform can be used as a tool to assist with neighborhood revitalization,” said Rofo CEO Alan Bernier.
Finally, Mayor Lee announced that the application for the Central Market Street and Tenderloin Area Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion is now publicly available and can be found on the Office of Economic and Workforce Development website, www.oewd.org, as well as on the new Central Market Partnership website, www.centralmarketpartnership.org. Applications are being accepted now, and the deadline to apply for the 2011 tax year is November 1, 2011. Please contact the Office of Economic and Workforce Development at 415-554-6969 with any questions regarding the application for the Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion.
About Zendesk
Zendesk is the leading provider of proven, cloud-based help desk software. For growing organizations, Zendesk is the fastest way to enable great customer service. More than 10,000 Zendesk customers, including Adobe, MSNBC, Sony, OpenTable and Groupon, trust Zendesk with their most valuable asset, their customers. Founded in 2007, Zendesk is funded by Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners. For more information, go to www.zendesk.com.
8/30/11—Mayor Edwin M. Lee today officially opened Zendesk, a leading developer of cloud-based help desk software, in Central Market and also announced that Zendesk has just completed a lease immediately doubling the size of their San Francisco location. Zendesk will now occupy 35,000 square feet at 989 Market Street, moving from their original South of Market offices. Zendesk plans to grow to 150 employees this year alone. Zendesk is the first tech company to open on Central Market since the adoption of the Central Market and Tenderloin Area Payroll Tax Exclusion in April.
“I am proud to officially welcome Zendesk to Central Market and want to congratulate them on their new expansion and creating jobs at a time when we need them the most,” said Mayor Lee. “We launched our Central Market revitalization effort with the goal of restoring Central Market as a center for arts, retail and innovative industries. I want to thank Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane for his leadership in bringing Zendesk to Central Market and his commitment to San Francisco.”
“We are very excited to be in our new headquarters,” said Zendesk CEO Mikkel Svane. “Earlier this year, we had started to outgrow our office space in SoMa and knew we would have to move. But, we were committed to staying in San Francisco. We are very enthusiastic about the vision the city has for making Central Market a better place to work and that we get to be a part of that. It is great to be here, and we are looking forward to giving back to this city that has been so generous to us.”
Mayor Lee also announced the launch of a new website to coordinate revitalization efforts for the Central Market district: www.centralmarketpartnership.org. The website will include communications about neighborhood news and events, a place for community members to give feedback on the City’s economic development efforts, and information about the programs and resources that the City and its partners are implementing in the district.
“There are so many people, businesses and organizations, like Zendesk, that are working to revitalize the Central Market neighborhood,” said Mayor Lee. “This new website will enable the City and its partners to be even more effective at coordinating activities, promoting the neighborhood, increasing access to resources, and creating new partnerships.”
The website also enables people and companies that are searching for office or retail space in Central Market to browse existing properties that are available, and access contact information for those properties. In order to provide online access to Central Market real estate data, the City is partnering with Rofo, a San Francisco-based technology company that simplifies the search for commercial real estate and tenants.
“We’re honored to be partnering with the City in a way where our commercial real estate platform can be used as a tool to assist with neighborhood revitalization,” said Rofo CEO Alan Bernier.
Finally, Mayor Lee announced that the application for the Central Market Street and Tenderloin Area Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion is now publicly available and can be found on the Office of Economic and Workforce Development website, www.oewd.org, as well as on the new Central Market Partnership website, www.centralmarketpartnership.org. Applications are being accepted now, and the deadline to apply for the 2011 tax year is November 1, 2011. Please contact the Office of Economic and Workforce Development at 415-554-6969 with any questions regarding the application for the Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion.
About Zendesk
Zendesk is the leading provider of proven, cloud-based help desk software. For growing organizations, Zendesk is the fastest way to enable great customer service. More than 10,000 Zendesk customers, including Adobe, MSNBC, Sony, OpenTable and Groupon, trust Zendesk with their most valuable asset, their customers. Founded in 2007, Zendesk is funded by Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners. For more information, go to www.zendesk.com.