So who's moving in? Microsoft and Yahoo have already bought office space in the past year, and Google looks to be on the
verge of joining them, having signed a letter of intent for space near the Embarcadero. Aside from these tech giants, many smaller, venture capital-funded startups are also on a hiring binge and badly
in need of office space.
In downtown San Francisco, it's as if the dot-com bubble never burst: In 2006, a quarter of leased office space went to tech companies, up from 14 % in 2004, says a report from real estate firm Grubb & Ellis.