Meta’s 1.6 MSF Silicon Valley Mixed-Use Campus Left in Limbo

May 7, 2026

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The tech giant cited changing market conditions and a shift in space requirements as reasons for the decision to halt development.

Meta Platforms announced it would halt plans for Willow Village, a 1.6 million-square-foot mixed-use campus in Silicon Valley, though the city of Menlo Park, Calif., said the development agreement is still in effect. The city’s Planning Commission will hold its annual review of the mega-project later this month.

Designed as a mixed-use neighborhood near Meta’s headquarters, the 59-acre project was to be built at the former Menlo Science & Technology Park and eventually house up to 7,000 Meta employees.

Key components included 1.6 million square feet of office space; a hotel; up to 200,000 square feet of retail space including a grocery store and restaurants; approximately 1,730 multifamily units, including 312 affordable apartments; a 1.5-acre town square and 3.5-acre park. One of the concepts included constructing a below-grade tunnel to connect inter-campus trams, bicyclists and pedestrians to Meta’s West and East campuses.

On May 1, a spokesman for Peninsula Innovation Partners, the Meta Platforms affiliate that owns the development site and is the project applicant, announced the decision to put the long-planned development on hold. The spokesman stated the current real estate market and a shift in space requirements made advancing a project of the type and scale unworkable at this time.

Meta’s announcement about the Willow Village project comes as the technology giant continues to pare its global and U.S. office footprint and headcount as it boosts investments in artificial intelligence. The company has had multiple rounds of layoffs, with reportedly more to come, as it plans to cut 7,500 to 8,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its workforce, despite reporting record revenue in the first quarter of 2026.

The decision also comes as the Silicon Valley office market is rebounding with leasing activity in the first quarter jumping 48 percent year-over-year to 3.2 million square feet, the highest since the pandemic, according to Kidder Mathews.

Leasing activity totaled 2.1 million square feet in the first quarter, up 46.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2025. However, Kidder Mathews noted the total net absorption was slightly negative, suggesting demand remains concentrated in several larger commitments rather than a broad-based recovery. The vacancy rate held quarter-over-quarter at 16.5 percent but rose 10 basis points year-over-year.

Project dates back several years

After years of planning and review, the Menlo Park City Council approved the Willow Village development in December 2022. In July 2023, the city’s Planning Commission approved four architectural plans for portions of the project at 1250-1390 Willow Road, 925-1098 Hamilton Ave. and 1005-1275 Hamilton Court. The designs included a glass-domed meeting and collaboration space, town square, office campus and two apartment buildings.

The Planning Commission will hold its annual review of the applicant’s compliance with the terms of the development agreement at its May 18 meeting. The city must evaluate potential impacts to the city’s affordable housing objectives that are contained in the Menlo Park Housing Element (2023-2031), a state-mandated, certified plan that details how the city would accommodate roughly 3,000 new housing units by 2031. The Willow Village proposed housing units had been included in the Housing Element plan, according to the city website.

The Mercury News and The Real Deal reported that Meta also pulled back from its $1 billion affordable housing plan for the South Bay Area a year ago. The firm had announced in 2019 it would provide housing funds and grants and also pay for new construction over a 10-year period. While the company denied cutting the funding, The Mercury News reviewed documents showing little had been done on the housing front since 2022.

Google also pulling out of development deals

Meta is not the only tech giant retreating from Silicon Valley mixed-use projects. Last year, Google reportedly considered selling 40 acres in Mountain View planned for Middlefield Park, where plans called for 1.3 million square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of retail, according to The Real Deal. The mixed-use neighborhood was set to get 1,900 homes, including 380 units of affordable housing, that had already been approved by city officials.

Middlefield Park was one of four Bay Area master-planned districts where Google and Lendlease had planned $15 billion in mixed-use projects before halting the developments in November 2023. Demolition had already begun at the 80-acre site in Downtown West in San Jose, where the partners were set to build 7.3 million square feet of office space, about 4,000 housing units and 15 acres of parks.