Meta is not letting go of its Redmond lab footprint anytime soon. The tech giant has renewed major leases for two buildings at the Willow Creek Corporate Center on Willows Road, recommitting roughly 146,000 square feet to its Eastside lab campus even as it reshapes its Reality Labs hardware division and trims staff.
The renewed deals keep a tight cluster of research and development buildings humming in Redmond while the broader division endures cuts and shifting priorities.
As reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal, Meta has signed on again for two Willow Creek buildings. Commercial real estate outlet The Registry puts the total at about 146,000 square feet and notes that the renewals helped tighten Redmond’s first quarter leasing picture. Taken together, the reports suggest big tech is still willing to hold on to specialized lab space on the Eastside even as headcounts move around.
Inside Meta's Redmond Renewals
One confirmed asset is 9805 Willows Road NE, a key lab and R&D facility that offering materials show is fully occupied by Meta through March 2029. A JLL offering flyer describes heavy tenant investments and sophisticated lab buildouts at the property, underscoring that Reality Labs hardware work still has a long term physical home in Redmond.
Reality Labs Shrinks While Bricks And Mortar Stay Put
The real estate commitments are arriving while Meta trims Reality Labs staff and reshuffles teams. Those steps began in January and continued into March, according to local and national reporting. GeekWire detailed early 2026 cuts inside the unit, and Reuters later described additional rounds tied to Meta’s broader artificial intelligence spending and restructuring plans.
What It Means For Redmond's Office Scene
For Redmond and its landlords, keeping a tenant the size of Meta in place is no small thing. The Registry reported that Redmond’s vacancy rate fell from roughly 20.8% to 6.4% in the first quarter of 2026, a sharp swing the outlet linked in part to big tech lease activity along Willows Road. With so little lab ready space left to go around, investors and owners have even more reason to zero in on that corridor.
All told, filings and local coverage point to a slimmer but still active R&D footprint in Redmond. Meta appears intent on holding the physical labs it needs on the Eastside even as it retools Reality Labs’ workforce and product roadmap. Local officials, brokers and rank and file employees will be watching closely to see whether those long leases lead to rehiring, subleases or more consolidation in the months ahead.
