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A stalwart of Silicon Valley is moving its headquarters to Texas, driven by cost savings and recruiting opportunities as the coronavirus pandemic reshapes the workplace.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, whose roots date to Bill Hewlett and David Packards 1939 founding of their eponymous company in a Palo Alto garage, is moving to the Houston area.

Antonio Neri, HPEs CEO, wrote in a blog post that in response to this new future of work, we have reevaluated our real estate site strategy to ensure that we are utilizing our workspaces most effectively and positioning our teams and talent in the best interests of our business.

Houston is an attractive market for us to recruit and retain talent, and a great place to do business, Neri wrote. As we look to the future, our business needs, opportunities for cost savings, and team members preferences about the future of work, we have made the decision to relocate HPEs headquarters to the new campus under construction in Spring, Texas, just outside of Houston.

HPE joins a number of major companies that have moved headquarters out of the Bay Area, and lower-cost Texas is a popular destination. Charles Schwab plans to officially move its headquarters from San Francisco to the Dallas area next month after acquiring TD Ameritrade, but previously said it would maintain its local San Francisco workforce. Last year, medical supplies giant McKesson moved from San Francisco to Irving, Texas.

Palantir, the controversial data-mining company that went public in September, moved from Palo Alto to Denver.

Both companies and employees can save significantly on real estate costs by leaving the Bay Area. As the Houston Chronicle reported, housing is significantly cheaper in Houston compared to other major cities, as well as the Bay Area. The median single-family home is $266,685.

The Bay Areas median existing home price was a staggering $1.1 million in October, and despite softening in the rental market, a median one-bedroom San Francisco apartment rents for more than $2,000 per month, according to Apartment List. In Houston, the median one-bedroom goes for $902 per month.

Office rent in Houston is around $30 per square foot annually, about half the cost in Silicon Valley, according to brokerage data. Building regulations in Houston are far less stringent compared to the Bay Area. (Houston famously does not have zoning, though it has other development regulations.)

HPE said its move wouldnt result in layoffs, and Bay Area employees could voluntarily move or remain in San Jose, which will continue to be the companys technical hub. Non-technical corporate jobs including human resources, the legal department and communications will relocate to Texas. HPE plans to consolidate offices in Milpitas and Santa Clara into its San Jose campus.

As of 2017, the company had over 3,000 employees in Houston, and it is the companys largest employment center. It had 61,600 employees as of October 2019.

The business-enterprise-focused tech company spun off from Hewlett-Packard in 2015. A component of the former Hewlett-Packard, its 2002 Compaq acquisition, was based in Houston, and the enterprise hardware and software operation has long had a large presence in the Texas city. HP Inc., which focuses on consumer computers and printers, will remain headquartered in Palo Alto.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com

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HPE, a touchstone of Silicon Valley, moving headquarters to Houston to save costs, recruit talent - San Francisco Chronicle