Uber reportedly moving into offices at LA Times complex in Downtown LA

Ridesharing app Uber may soon join the wave of tech companies expanding into Los Angeles. The Real Deal reports the San Francisco-based company has signed a lease for 18,000 square feet of office space in the Times Mirror Square complex, which has housed the LA Times since the 1930s (the LA Times itself reported similar information last month).

Uber will reportedly rent space in the Times South building, a moderne-style tower built in 1948 to supplement the 1935 Times building designed by Gordon B. Kauffman.

The entire complex was purchased last year by Canadian developer Onni Group. The company revealed plans in December to redevelop the site with a pair of high-rise towers with a combined 1,127 units of housing and 34,000 square feet of commercial space.

Three of the five structures on the site, including the Times and Times South buildings, would be preserved amid the new construction.

Uber’s move into Downtown LA goes against the grain of other major tech companies that have opened up offices in “Silicon Beach,” which includes Santa Monica and Playa Vista. Uber has also opened up offices in New York and Washington, D.C.

It’s not clear yet what projects the company plans to focus on at its new Los Angeles offices, but the very politically active company’s new space will be conveniently located a block from City Hall.

• Uber signs 18K sf lease at Onni Group’s Times Mirror Square property: sources [The Real Deal]
• Uber is Now Legally Allowed to Pick Up Passengers at LAX [Curbed LA]
• South LA Is the Only Place Where Taxis Aren't Losing Ground to Uber [Curbed LA]