In New York, Google Buys a $2.1 Billion Office Building
New York-based Google is acquiring a large office building on Manhattan’s West Side for $2.1 billion.
As a result of the pandemic, the company has adopted a hybrid work paradigm, which coincides with this relocation.
On Tuesday, Google announced that the new location will serve as an “anchor” for its large city campus, which now employs 12,000 people in the surrounding area. By the middle of 2023, it should be open for business.
When the Covid-19 pandemic first broke, the sale of a single US office building was the most costly in US history, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story first.
Because of this, Google’s New York office is the largest outside of California, and the company’s presence in the city has been expanding over time.
In order to expand its 1.7 million square foot Hudson Square property, Google is buying the St. John’s Terminal, an old freight transfer facility that it had previously leased. “Reimagined into a highly sustainable, adaptable and networked building,” Google (GOOG) said of the structure. In the long run, the corporation expects to have 14,000 people working in the city.
Although it’s moving toward a hybrid workplace, Google said in a blog post that it’s buying the facility because in-person cooperation is a “essential element of our future.” For the time being, Google has decided to delay its full return to the office until 2022 and is allowing workers to work from anywhere as long as their position permits it.
Although the pandemic has forced a large number of people to work from home, IT firms have continued to grow their office space. Facebook (FB) just purchased an empty corporate headquarters in Bellevue, Washington from recreation retailer REI. While Amazon (AMZN) and Apple (AAPL) have announced substantial expansion plans in various US locations, Bloomberg reports that Amazon (AMZN) has also been eyeing Hudson Yards in New York for development.
