Salesforce backs out of Mission Bay campus

A plan to build 2 million square feet of office and retail space in Mission Bay as a headquarters for tech giant Salesforce has been suspended, a company spokesman said Monday.

Rapid growth within the company was said to be the main reason for the delay.

Salesforce, a cloud computing company, said in a statement it added 500 more employees in the past year, far exceeding expectations.

The company also said plans to continue hiring locally and globally. An estimated 3,000 employees are based in The City, and Salesforce expects that to grow to 5,000 in the next few years.

That growth, the company said, is one reason Salesforce signed an 18-year, $339 million lease for 400,000 square feet of space at 50 Fremont St. in downtown. But now the company said it likely needs more space as it continues to grow.

“It is clear to us that our original Mission Bay strategy may not provide enough space and flexibility for our needs,” the company said. “This means we are suspending development on our Mission Bay campus and instead focusing on further expansion of our downtown San Francisco campus.”

The Mission Bay campus, which was approved in January, called for construction on 14 acres within the Mission Bay redevelopment zone. Residential housing in Mission Bay is still slated to continue, and UC San Francisco’s hospital complex is progressing toward its 2014 completion date.

Though Salesforce would have been a major component of Mission Bay, Mayor Ed Lee’s office -- which has been a big supporter of luring tech companies to San Francisco -- said it’s committed to working with the company.

“They’re a rapidly expanding high-tech company,” mayoral spokeswoman Christine Falvey said. “They’re a company people look at when others try to figure out where to headquarter. The mayor is committed to working with them in downtown and in Mission Bay.”

akoskey@sfexaminer.com

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Salesforce backs out of Mission Bay campus