Epic Games buys a mega mall, and turns it into a global headquarters

Epic Games is buying an old mall – nearly a million square feet in size – and plans to convert it into a new global headquarters by 2024.

Deal, It was first reported by Triangle Business Journal, Epic awards Cary Towne Center with 980,000 square feet for $ 95 million. The Cary Towne Center is located about 3.2 km from the current Epic headquarters.

Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina since 1999, Epic Games has 2,200 employees in its global workforce. The company is best known for developing the Unreal Engine and It is an electronic gameIt has around twenty subsidiaries and studios in other locations around the world, and has acquired or established more than half of them since then. Fortnite Battle Royale It was launched at the end of 2017.

Located on 87 acres, like many malls in the United States, Cary Towne Center has struggled to stay open as primary tenants have left or closed altogether thanks to shopping trends that spill over the Internet. Referred to WRAL-TV from Raleigh Only a few shops are still open there and a lot of the mall is closed. Handpicked by its current owners in 2019 for $ 31 million, they then asked Cary City Council to approve its redistribution, which would allow the use of offices, hotel rooms, and multi-family housing as well as commercial space.

It’s unclear how much of these plans will go forward under Epic, but due to the re-partition, Epic could start on the new campus immediately. The company said it will work with the town of Carey on a planned, $ 193 million sports and entertainment center on the site. An Epic Games spokesperson told Triangle Business Journal that the campus will include office buildings and recreational spaces.

Especially epic games Reported $ 1.78 billion new financing round In August 2020, it is estimated to be worth $ 17.3 billion. The company was planning to expand its current location in Cary, which it has owned since 2015, with 500,000 square feet of space that accommodates up to 2,000 employees. WRAL stated that these plans are discontinued.