Google maps out New York City expansion

Google recently announced a major real estate expansion in New York City, making the company one of the city’s biggest commercial tenants, The Wall Street Journal reports. The expansion is also expected to add thousands of jobs in the next few years.
The company said in a blog post it would lease space at the office building at 550 Washington Street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The building would serve as the centerpiece of Google’s new 1.7 million square foot Hudson Square Campus. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google plans to invest $1 billion in capital investments to the campus.
 
“When we came to New York City almost two decades ago, it was our first office outside of California,” Google and Alphabet, Inc. Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat wrote on the company blog.  “It’s now home to more than 7,000 employees, speaking 50 languages, working on a broad range of teams including Search, Ads, Maps, YouTube, Cloud, Technical Infrastructure, Sales, Partnerships and Research.”
 
Google’s expansion in the Big Apple comes not long after rival Amazon chose New York as one its east coast locations for its satellite offices. Google was much quieter with its expansion however and did not pursue incentives from New York or create competition between cities.
 
The announcement follows a current trend of tech companies moving to cities outside of the traditional west coast locations in the Bay Area. Google recently opened new facilities in Detroit and Los Angeles, and has stated it is growing faster outside of Silicon Valley than it is inside of it. Meanwhile, Apple recently said it plans to invest $1 billion to build another campus in Austin, TX for 5,000 employees. Google’s plan to add 7,000 employees in New York during the next decade is a “conservative estimate,” according to William Floyd, Google’s director of public policy and government relations.
 
Currently, Google’s New York footprint is expected to comprise approximately seven million square feet of owned or leased office space, which could hold more than 46,000 total employees, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company’s growing presence in New York has put it on track to be one of the biggest corporate tenants in Manhattan alongside flexible office space provider WeWork Cos and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
 
Google’s first New York office opened in 2000 and then the company moved into a building at 111 Eighth Avenue in 2006. The property has been Google’s primary New York office as it has continually acquired nearby office buildings at Chelsea Market, on 10^th Avenue and at Pier 57. The company plans for some employees to work in the Hudson Street buildings when they open in 2020, with more staff working in the St. John’s Terminal building when it is finished in 2022. The Hudson Square Campus will also be a hub of Google’s global sales operation, according to Floyd.

“With these most recent investments in Google Chelsea and Google Hudson Square, we will have the capacity to more than double the number of Googlers in New York over the next 10 years,” Porat wrote. “Our investment in New York is a huge part of our commitment to grow and invest in U.S. facilities, offices and jobs. As we continue to grow across the country, we look forward to calling New York City home for many years to come.”