The next headquarters for Fortnite maker Epic Games is going to be a 980,000 square foot shopping mall - or at least, that's what it is right now.
Epic Games announced this week that it plans to purchase the Cary Towne Center shopping mall and convert the property into its new headquarters by 2024. Epic has been headquartered in Cary, North Carolina ever since 1999 and will remain in its old location until the new space is ready for the company to move in. I visited the old building a few years ago - it has a big metal slide you can take from the second floor to the first, which is pretty cool, but not as cool as the entire office permanently being within walking distance of a food court.
The new headquarters will be a large campus composed of both office buildings and recreational areas, "customized from the ground up" to suit Epic's needs and its future growth. According to Epic, it's also working with the city of Cary to explore ways the local community may be able to use some of the space.
"We look forward to continuing to work closely and collaboratively with the Epic team as they conceptualize their new campus, and we’re honored to partner with them on this exciting new development," Cary mayor Harold Weinbrecht said in Epic's press release.
Like many shopping malls across the US, the Cary Towne Center has struggled in recent years. It was sold in a 2019 distressed sale to an equity and property management group after losing three of its five anchor businesses - and that was a full year before the pandemic started delivering even more blows to brick-and-mortar shopping locations. Epic Games, on the other hand, is doing pretty darn well.
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