Next for Facebook: Building a Company Town

The rental community, named Anton Menlo, will have more than just apartments. A sports bar, doggy day care, and other services are planned.

“Even in Silicon Valley, where tech companies compete to lure coveted engineers with over-the-top perks and offices that resemble adult playgrounds, Facebook’s plan breaks ground,” Reed Albergotti writes.

Facebook says the project is a response to employees’ concerns over rising housing costs. But comparisons to 20th-century “company towns”--and the extent to which they controlled every aspect of workers’ lives--are inevitable.

The announcement of the Anton Menlo project follows a similar announcement, made last August, of plans to build a "Main Street" through Facebook’s office park.