Target Corp. wants innovation to be a bigger part of its corporate DNA, so it's opening an office right in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The Minneapolis-based retailer quietly unveiled a new tech hub in Sunnyvale this week, its second major outpost in California. In 2012, it also opened its Technology Innovation Center in downtown San Francisco.
The latter, which has about 20 employees, is more focused on testing and exploring new technologies with start-ups. But the Sunnyvale office will be more geared toward data analytics and engineering for its online and mobile teams, said Eddie Baeb, a Target spokesman.
"This is really about being in a location that is close to and makes it easy for the talent we want to work with to be at Target," he said.
While it's only an hour away from the San Francisco office, he said the new location is more convenient for people who prefer to live in San Jose instead of San Francisco and who would rather work in the heart of the Valley.
The 7,000-square-foot Sunnyvale office will initially have about 15 employees, but could one day have upward of 70, Baeb said.
The new space, which held a small open house on Monday night, will also provide a home base for Target executives from Minneapolis when they fly out to California to meet with technology partners.
Other retailers have also been staking out ground in the Valley as they look to reinvent themselves for the digital age. Wal-Mart, for example, has its e-commerce headquarters in San Bruno, Calif.
