Paul Darrah

The biggest New York real estate news for Google last year was the company’s purchase of the 1.7 million-square-foot St. John’s Terminal, at 550 Washington Street in Hudson Square, for $2.1 billion. The building will host around 4,000 employees and serve as the headquarters for Google’s Global Business Operations.

But for a company as massive as Google, that’s just one part of its overall plan for New York.

“Over the last five years, we have been working toward a 10-year strategy that has us doubling in size in New York during that period,” Paul Darrah said. “We’re now a little bit over 12,000 employees [in New York City]. We knew we were outgrowing Chelsea. So the purchase of 550 enabled us to create an anchor, a second hub in New York. We’ll likely be delivering 550 Third quarter of 2023.”

Darrah notes that despite the naysaying over the fate of the city given COVID-19, Google has remained bullish about New York’s growth.

“The amazing indicator for us is that New York City is one of four or five key hub locations where we are seeing significant growth in terms of headcount across multiple business units,” Darrah said. “We give employees the option of relocating, and people are choosing the urban environment. They’re choosing New York City. Pre-COVID, our annual growth was 1,400 people a year. We’re now at 1,900 people a year. People want to be in New York.”

The St. John’s Terminal building joins a wealth of other prestigious properties in Google’s New York portfolio, including 315 and 345 Hudson Street, Pier 57, 111 Eighth Avenue, Chelsea Market, and The Milk Building at 450 West 15th Street, which will include offices for Google-owned YouTube.

Darrah notes that with all this office space, Google remains open to potential hybrid work scenarios and sees one of the company’s challenges as, like other employers, trying to determine the future nature of work.

“[We want to] begin to understand how people are working in the office, which I think is going to be emerging over the next year and a half or so,” Darrah said. “We’re in a great position to both continue to grow, and make sure we have the right workplace to attract and retain talent.”