Comparing Office Space Costs: LA vs. San Francisco

Los Angeles and San Francisco are home to some of the largest and most dynamic office space markets on the US West Coast. However, there are important differences in the costs involved in setting up an office in these locations. In this article, we offer a comparative cost analysis of office lease costs between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Los Angeles: The US creative capital

Being the nation’s creative capital, Los Angeles is a magnet for businesses looking for office space to carry out media, entertainment, design, and advertising activities.

In 2023, the city’s creative industries contributed nearly 15% of the state’s total economic output.

The majority of these businesses are located in downtown LA but also in exclusive hillside and waterfront locations, such as Hollywood, Silicon Beach, the Arts District, Playa Vista, and Burbank.
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The need for a satellite office is often a marker of business growth and success. Relocating the main headquarters and operations of a business isn’t always practical due to the time and expenses involved. As businesses evolve and expand their reach across the globe, they often require a physical presence in multiple locations, allowing them to operate effectively outside of their initial location. A multinational tech giant, such as Amazon, can be seen as a prime example of a business that utilizes satellite offices across the globe to ensure that their reach extends beyond their main Seattle office space. For many companies, acquiring satellite locations is the most feasible way of meeting growth and expansion needs, especially when there are contractual or financial limitations to how much an office can be physically expanded.

Satellite offices, also known as branch offices, tend to have a smaller footprint than their parent company. Many organizations benefit from having a network of satellite locations instead of a centralized office, creating a web of offices which allows them to operate to maximum efficiency.

Satellite offices can be in a different city, county or state from their parent company or the company’s headquarters. To determine where a satellite office should be based, factors such as the proximity to the target market, tax or financial incentives, and the area’s business or economic development climate are taken into account.

As part of the state of California, Los Angeles is renowned for its thriving business scene and strong economic indicators. The city benefits from a mature commercial real estate market that offers a great variety of alternative office spaces, usually ranking among the top five in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

Los Angeles County is home to the nation’s second largest metropolitan area and to one of the world’s most powerful economies. The county is made up of 88 cities and has approximately 300,000 employers, which provide jobs to a workforce of nearly 5 million people.

Major Industries and Employers in Los Angeles County

Key industries include entertainment and media due to the presence of highly successful companies like Walt Disney, Warner Bros, and Paramount Pictures. Trade is also a strong economic driver due to the location of the Port of Los Angeles, situated in the southern part of the county, which is one of the state’s largest employers with over 800,000 employees.

Education and healthcare have been paramount to the local economy since the mid 20th century, as the county is home to prestigious institutions that include the University of California, California Institute of Technology, and Loyola Law School, as well as to healthcare corporations like CareMore, Health Net, and Molina Healthcare.

Other sectors worth mentioning include pharma, fashion, hospitality, tourism, financial services, and publishing. Tech-related activities have grown fast and now employ nearly 400,000 people, but the creative industry is by far the sector with the highest growth rates, supporting more than 740,000 jobs.

Key employers include CBRE, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Snapchat, and Universal Pictures (Los Angeles), Walt Disney (Burbank), Riot Games and Hulu (Santa Monica), Toyota and Honda (Torrance), Isuzu Motors (Cerritos), and Avery Dennison (Glendale).   Read the rest of this entry »

As tech companies offer higher pay for developers, ten cities stand out in the U.S. as the highest paying for IT jobs. San Jose, San Francisco and New York offer the highest salaries. Those who are searching for the highest paying IT jobs obviously need to head west. Statistics from the recruiting company CyberCoders points out that the average salaries in San Jose and San Francisco average $14,000 more than in third ranked New York City.

The top 10 list does contain cities scattered throughout the U.S. where lucrative jobs can be found. Major cities like Boston, Washington D.C., Dallas and Chicago are included on the list. The greatest increase in salaries has come in mobile development positions. However, IT salaries have gone up across the board in the last year. Individuals who acquire multiplatform skills and are able to design and code within the constantly changing world of mobile applications become the highest paid workers.

The cities that rank highest in pay for IT jobs in high-range, mid-range and low-range salaries are:
1. San Jose, CA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. New York, NY
4. Washington, D.C.
5. Boston, MA
6. Los Angeles, CA
7. Brooklyn, NY
8. Philadelphia, PA
9. Chicago, IL
10. Dallas, TX

The Roche Group is pushing back the frontiers of healthcare in 150 countries, employing about 80,000 workers. It has become one of the largest research-based healthcare groups. Genentech, a subsidiary, has led the biotech industry for over 30 years. They use human genetic information to develop specialized medicines for life-threatening diseases. The headquarters for Roche pharmaceutical operations are located in the U.S. Their philosophy is that the employees are their most important asset and they are dedicated to maintaining a great work place along with providing the best salaries for IT workers. Their CRM Techs provide expert technical information for Genentech’s Commercial Operations. They are responsible for maintaining project work, enhancements, and problem solutions. They work with onsite contractors and a Poland-based development team. These workers must be familiar with a variety of databases, with a strong technical foundation that includes advanced structured programming. Salary compensation for these positions is among the highest in the field.

CompuTech, located in Clarkstown, NY offers Desktop Support Tech positions with a world renowned computer manufacturing company. These are contract positions requiring backgrounds 5 years’ experience in both HP hardware and software, Windows XP and Windows 7 maintenance. Salaries are commensurate with experience and skill levels.

Similar positions may be found in any of the cities listed above. Depending on the applicant’s skills and training, and where he wants to work, high-paying IT jobs are available throughout the country.

Business Seminars in LA, San Francisco, San Diego and Irvine

It is not difficult to locate a variety of business training seminars in California. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno and Irvine are favorite hubs for such seminars and businesses from all over the country come to take advantage of the lovely weather, wonderful facilities and excellent motivational speakers to improve their management personnel’s working skills.

Courses in Public Speaking are readily available to management and other personnel. These seminars include improving personal confidence in presenting material effectively to a large audience. Clear, concise communication skills are encouraged through -question/answer- teaching methods. One and two day courses are available that encourage actual speaking situations rather than lectures. Learning and practicing public speaking skills soon become second nature to the individual’s style of speaking. Read the rest of this entry »

Mattel

Mattel is the world-renowned manufacturer of toys that has virtually cornered the market on toys in all major countries. Through it or its subsidiaries, most children throughout the world have at least one toy made by Mattel or its subsidiaries. They employ around 31,000 people, making them one of the largest businesses in the country. Their compensation package is decent enough to retain a good majority of those employees for years.

Live Nation Entertainment

Live Nation has put on some of the biggest, most popular concerts in the world, and is becoming a major behemoth in the live entertainment industry. The company has recently been cleared to buy out Ticketmaster, giving it an even larger stake in the live entertainment industry. Live Nation Entertainment has almost 16,000 part time employees, and 4,700 full time employees.

Walt Disney Company

More familiar to western audiences as simply “Disney,” this company has been providing entertainment products for years via its different brands. Between the theme parks, the studios, and the many other businesses that it is involved with, Disney maintains a workforce of more than 156,000 people worldwide. The turnover here is fairly low in the United States, however the Walt Disney Company sees quite a bit of turnover in its international divisions.

Hilton Hotels and Resorts

Founded in 1919, the Hilton family of hotels has always been seen as one of the highest standards in hospitality. Not only was Hilton the first hotel chain to have locations coast to coast in the United States, but it is currently one of the largest hotel chains in the world. The company employs people around the world, as it operates in 78 countries throughout six continents.

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman is a defense contractor for governments around the world. It is listed as the fourth largest defense contractor in the world, and is one of the 100 largest companies in the United States. Currently, Northrop Grumman has a workforce of 120,000 people worldwide. The company is widely considered to be one of the most “military-friendly” businesses in the United States, meaning it’s easier for former military members to get jobs here.

Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum is one of the largest petroleum companies operating worldwide. The petroleum side of the business is actually only one part of the many things that Occidental Petroleum does, and it branches out into chemical manufacture and other types of production. At last count, Occidental Petroleum has 11,000 employees working in its worldwide operations.

KB Home

KB Home is a house manufacturer that was once based out of Detroit, Michigan. Now, its operations are based in Los Angeles, and it is the largest manufacturer of homes in the country. It was also the first publicly traded company in the New York Stock Exchange to be classified as a “home builder.” It is a Fortune 500 company, and has been consistently named the “Most Admired Homebuilder” by Fortune for years.

Reliance Steel and Aluminum

Reliance is a Fortune 500 company that has been around since 1939. The company primarily deals in the production and sale of a number of specialized metal components for construction, but they aren’t limited to this. They currently employ 9,640 people in both a part time and full time capacity.

Mercury Insurance Group

Mercury is one of the largest insurance companies in the country, and has a workforce of roughly 5,000 people. They made waves recently as one of the only national carriers of insurance to work its way into some of the tighter state markets. Some states with tougher restrictions on insurance are often avoided by national carriers, meaning that Mercury Insurance Group is one of only a few engaged in this practice.

Univision Communications

Univision is one of the largest Spanish-language communications companies in both the United States and Mexico. The company was founded in 1992, and it employs people from Mexico to the United States in a wide variety of programming. Univision carries everything from news to variety shows on its networks, many of which are produced in-house. The production operations of Univision Communications are mostly conducted out of Miami, Florida.

Landmarks represent the richness and diversity of culture, history and heritage. It is no accident that many famous landmarks are used as corporate offices. Companies that commission such buildings have the power to create constructions that are impressive enough to become famous corporate landmarks. Here are several examples of striking corporate landmarks that incorporate a range of styles from high-tech modern to neo-classical. Each building has a function or feature so unique that it led to being famous all over the world.

The Woolworth Building in New York was designed in 1913 to be the tallest building in the world. From its completion until 1930 the building was the tallest in the world. The building was commissioned by Frank Woolworth to be the new corporate headquarters of Woolworth. The building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in the United States and the architecture resembles European cathedrals. The building was owned by the company for until 1998. Today, it is a monument not only to the originator of Woolworth, but the architect, as well who won acclaim for his detail and use of Gothic forms. Since 1966 the building has been a National Historic Landmark and a city landmark since 1983.

The US Bank Tower in California is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city of Los Angeles, as well as one of the city’s’ most famous buildings. When this building was completed it became the tallest building on the Pacific coast. It is the most recognizable building in Los Angeles and is often used for shots for television programs and movies. The top of the building brightly illuminates at night. The building was designed to withstand earthquakes of an 8.3 magnitude and even has the world’s highest helipad.

The Chrysler Building is a famous corporate landmark in New York City and in 1930 it was the tallest building in the world for a while. Chrysler had asked the architects for the highest building to compete with competitors, also trying to have the highest building. It was a highly decorated office building, because Chrysler wanted a bold structure and he got it. Chrysler was hoping that such a distinguishing structure would make his company a common household name. Although, Chrysler lost command of the structure during the 1950’s, the landmark still has the original name. Today, it is one of the most well-know buildings in the world. Additionally it is one the city’s greatest display of Art Deco and a national landmark.

The Sears Tower is a famous corporate landmark located in Chicago, Illinois. This skyscraper was designed for the Sears Company as their headquarters. The building was designed with additional space for expansion. Since, Sears was by far the biggest retailer in the world in 1969. The project was a disappointment, because it was unable to attract tenants and was sold to new owners in 1993. The top of the tower is the highest point in Illinois. Since then the building has attracted major tenants and is a highly desirable business location. The skydeck is on the 103rd floor, 1350 feet above ground and on a clear day tourists can see far over the plains of Illinois and across Lake Michigan. Every year thousands of visitors are attracted to the renowned famous skydeck.

The GE Building is a famous building in New York. It is a skyscraper in Manhattan and forms a focal point for illustrious Rockefeller Center. Three related companies are associated with this building, G E, Westinghouse and RCA. Previously the building has been known as the RCA Building. Today the building provides headquarters for NBC and General Electric. It is most famous for housing the NBC network. It was the first building to have grouped elevators. The building boasts a height of 855 feet and has 70 stories. The modern design features an open floor plan and was awarded the status of being a landmark in 1985.

The luminous Wrigley Building is a world famous office tower in downtown Chicago. The goal of Mr. Wrigley was to create an impressive headquarters for his company. One of the buildings most well-known features is the huge clock-tower and is a landmark in Chicago. In addition to being home for the Wrigley Company, the building houses many other companies. The flood lighting of the building at night is one of the nation’s most major commercial displays of light. For over 70 years the building has been one of Chicago’s most attractive structures. The well-proportioned architecture and the lighting have established the building as a symbol of the city in many motion pictures, books and television programs. It definitely is an unforgettable image at night for both residents and visitors.

The west coast is renowned for its top-flight business schools. By and large, the most well-regarded of these schools are in the state of California, and they are exceptionally competitive. Obviously, private colleges are known for being more competitive in nature. However, state colleges in California are almost equally as competitive, meaning that mostly high-level students consider going to California to get their business degree. Here are the top five of what west coast business schools have to offer.

University of California – Davis
The University of California – Davis is known mostly for its graduate level degree programs, and it is renowned for its collaborative atmosphere and approach to teaching. The business program boasts only 175 full-time students, with that number almost doubling for part-time students. The school was established in 1905, and it has since become very popular with working professionals as a way to expand their education while still being able to keep working. It offers an extensive amount of night class options so that students can get their degree while working around corporate office schedules and general business hours.

The University of Southern California – Marshall School of Business
Established in 1960, it is the largest of the campuses in the University of Southern California school system. It is ranked at number 15 in a list of the top worldwide PhD-level business research institutions. It boasts an enrollment of 460 students at the full-time level, with 830 students enrolled at the part-time level of commitment. The part time MBA program for managers and professionals is an extremely popular program at USC Marshall. It allows people to work on their MBA over a 33-month program while still being able to hold to their professional commitments and obligations. More than half of all graduates of the business programs here are already employed by the time they graduate.

The University of California – Los Angeles
The Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles has a moderately-sized enrolment, and offers a wide range of options for people looking to expand their business credentials. The school of management here was founded in 1935 as a mostly undergraduate-focused institution. In the years after the installation of the MBA program, this focus shifted to more advanced business-themed curricula, resulting in a highly sought-after set of graduate programs. The school gets most of its funding via private donors, and accepts very little money even though it is a public school. The school is known for its diversity, with a number of different cultures being represented on the campus.

The University of California – Berkeley
The Haas School of Business at the University of California’s Berkeley campus is a highly-prized public institution with a mid-range enrolment of a little over 400 students. The school is a recognized leader in the burgeoning e-commerce economy, offering degree programs in e-commerce as well as other technology-based management programs. Founded in 1898, the Haas School of Business focuses on programs that stay ahead of the curve on the mixture of technology and commerce and has always had a history of doing so. Haas is consistently ranked as one of the top ten business schools in the entire world by US News and World Report, as well as The Economist.

Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Stanford Graduate School of Business is regarded as one of the best schools in the entire world, and consistently ranks as the top school for business on the west coast. There are many that argue Stanford’s supremacy as the top business school in North America. Established in 1925, the school has a broad range of study options for both professional students and those who do not yet have a career in business. Stanford also has a reputation for mixing business education with an understanding of how business can positively influence society and the environment. The college was recently ranked number one in a review by the Aspen Institute of colleges that incorporate social and environmental issues into their curriculum.

Famous students of Stanford include co-founders of Google Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin and Larry Page, as well as Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. Tiger Woods also attended Stanford on a full golf scholarship.

The Internet has created a lot of opportunities for young entrepreneurs to get their ideas out to the world. Before the Internet, the idea of a 16 year old kid successfully marketing a product to worldwide audience was completely unrealistic. The entrepreneurs listed here have found a way to utilize the power of the Internet to build impressive empires before their 18th birthday.

Jason O’Neill
When he was 12 years old, Jason O’Neill from California, invented a very simple pencil accessory that turned out to be very popular with younger kids: Pencil Bugs. Pencil Bugs are essentially little heads attached coils of wire that can be wrapped around the end of a pencil. While the idea itself may not be complex, O’Neill made them very popular at local craft fairs by giving each Pencil Bug a name and birth certificate. He built an entire mythology up around his invention and they quickly became very popular. In fact, he did so well with his idea that he was named 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year.

Ashley Qualls
Ms. Qualls, from Michigan, began her entrepreneurial career at the tender age of 14 by starting a website called WhateverLife.com. The site was originally centered around layouts for MySpace and HTML tutorials for boys and girls in her age group. While it was nothing but a hobby at first, the website soon developed into a complete sensation. It was recently reported that Ms. Qualls turned down an offer to sell her website for $1.5 million. While her net worth is not currently known, she makes enough from the site to employ her own mother and pay in cash for a $250,000 home in the suburbs.

Garrett Yazzie
Garrett Yazzie’s life is something of a Cinderella story. He was born on a Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona to a very poor family with very little means. He grew up in a small trailer without running water, electricity, or heat. The small amount of heat that his family could muster from time to time came from burning wood and coal in a furnace. This led to many respiratory problems with a younger sister of his.

When he was 13, Garrett’s life completely turned around. His teacher mentioned a state science fair and asked if anyone was interested in participating. Garret was the only person who showed an interest, and it would turn out to be a very important decision in his life. The project he created for the fair was a solar-powered heater that he made out of used aluminum cans and an old car engine he found in a junkyard. The heater was a national success, and it earned him loads of accolades. He has since gone into a special preparatory school and has been given a free ride to the college of his choice.

Anshul Samar
Anshul Samar is the CEO of Elementeo, which is an educational gaming company located in Silicon Valley. He started up his business when he was only 14 years old, and it has developed into one of the most popular educational gaming companies in the country. The flagship product of Samar’s business is called Elementeo. The game is a card-based board game that mixes fantasy and chemistry in a way that makes learning about chemicals fun for kids. He operates the business out of his home with very little overhead operating costs. By conservative estimates, Samar has sold over 50,000 units of his game all over the world. With each game costing roughly $25, that is an amazing amount of revenue.

Maryanne Barrott
Maryanne’s business started much like many other businesses on this list. She originally just wanted to do a simple summer project with her mother. The project was to start making her own body care products out of special ingredients. What it has turned into for her is an amazingly popular line of body care products that are sold mostly online. Maryanne, from Idaho, didn’t get this successful with nothing more than a good product, though. She thoroughly planned the roll-out of her product by creating a business plan that was so well-conceived that it won her the Business Plan of the Year award from the Young Entrepreneurs of America.

Rockville, MD
Rockville is a small suburb of Maryland that has a population of a little over 50,000 people. While it may not be the biggest place in the world, its location is what makes it such a hotbed of startup activity. Its proximity to a number of major national laboratories makes Rockville specifically a hub of the biotech industry, and it means that there are a lot of funding sources available for the right type of startup.

San Francisco, CA
San Francisco, California, is known mostly for its art and culture, but it also has a bustling economic scene in these tough times. The real benefit of operating out of San Francisco is the convergence of academia and business. There are a lot of established universities out here, as well as a lot of giants in the technology industry.

Franklin, TN
Franklin, Tennessee, is a small town about the size of Rockville, but is more of an entity of its own. There is a major biotechnology push in Franklin, with the university putting up state-of-the-art facilities to push development in that sector. More than half of the people living in Franklin have at least a four-year college education, and the technology industry here is on the rise.

Bellevue, WA
Close to the home of such giants as Microsoft, Bellevue, situated in Washington, is one of the hottest spots of activity in the technology sector in the country. Bellevue’s residents hold more patents than any other city in the country, and there are a lot of tax incentives for small startups, especially in the technology sector. Being so close to many of the larger, older technology firms gives startups the ability to utilize a wealth of industry information that is more readily found in this area than in other areas.

Cambridge, MA
Cambridge will be recognizable to most people as the home to both MIT and Harvard, two of the most prestigious universities in the world. As a town of roughly 100,000 people, Cambridge maintains a very low-key persona that carries an air of growth. The town has a reputation to uphold as one of the hotbeds of advancement in the country, and the incentives for small business development here are ample.

Irvine, CA
Irvine, California, has a number of things going for it that make it very attractive for startups. It is right outside of Los Angeles, so it is mostly populated by technology and entertainment-based startups, but there are many different businesses here. One of the most attractive aspects of the city is that it gives entertainment and technology startups access to Los Angeles without actually having to be located in the city itself.

Bend, OR
Bend, Oregon, has experienced a growth rate of 50 percent over the past decade, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The town itself used to be centered around logging, but has since become very involved with the technology, aviation, and biotech industries.

Santa Monica, CA
Santa Monica, California, has become very popular for film startups over the past decade. The proximity to Los Angeles is the big draw here, with business owners getting all the benefits of Los Angeles without the stifling taxes that come with living in the city. Digital media production companies find that they are able to compete with larger film companies while operating out of Santa Monica.

Boca Raton, FL
Looking to shirk its reputation as nothing but a paved old folks home, Boca Raton, Florida, is very welcoming of startups, especially in the technology industry. There are a lot of smaller companies that work here that have been started by employees of IBM, which has operated out of Boca Raton since the 1970s.

Boulder, CO
Boulder, Colorado, has become something of an icon of the technology startup community. As the university has advanced its technology base over the past ten years, more and more businesses have been developing here from the resulting boom in startup grant funding. There are a number of national research labs maintained in Boulder, and these labs bring in a swathe of talent from around the globe– making Boulder a hotbed of activity in the technology industry.