Skip to content
Logo
  • Leases
    • Industrial
    • Office
    • Retail
    • All Leases
  • Finance
    • Acquisition
    • CMBS
    • Construction
    • Distress
    • Refinance
    • All Finance
  • Sales
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Mixed Use
    • Land
    • Hotels
    • Development Rights
    • All Sales
  • Design + Construction
    • Architecture
    • Construction
    • Infrastructure
    • Policy
    • Urban Planning
    • Neighborhoods
    • All Design + Construction
  • Technology
  • More
    • Features
    • Columnists
    • Analysis
    • Research
    • Partner Insights
    • Industry
    • Legal
    • Players
    • Transportation
    • Tenant Talk
  • Markets
    • Los Angeles
    • New York City
    • Manhattan
    • Brooklyn
    • Queens
    • Bronx
    • National
    • Washington DC
    • South Florida
  • Videos
    • Power Briefing
    • Leasing + Sales Q&A
    • Design + Construction Q&A
    • On-Demand Events
    • All Videos
  • Weekly Issue
  • Events
  • NYC Mayors Race
Log In Sign Up My Account Log Out
  • Account Details
  • Email Preferences
  • Member FAQs
  • Logout
Logo
  • Leases
    • Industrial
    • Office
    • Retail
    • All
  • Finance
    • Acquisition
    • Construction
    • CMBS
    • Distress
    • Refinance
    • All
  • Sales
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Mixed Use
    • Land
    • Hotels
    • Development Rights
    • All
  • Design + Construction
    • Architecture
    • Construction
    • Infrastructure
    • Policy
    • Urban Planning
    • Neighborhoods
    • All
  • Technology
  • More
    • Features
    • Columnists
    • Analysis
    • Research
    • Partner Insights
    • Industry
    • Legal
    • Players
    • Transportation
    • All
  • Markets
    • Los Angeles
    • New York City
    • Manhattan
    • Brooklyn
    • Queens
    • Bronx
    • National
    • Washington DC
    • South Florida
  • Videos
    • Power Briefing
    • Leasing + Sales Q&A
    • Design + Construction Q&A
    • On-Demand Events
    • All Videos
  • Weekly Issue
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Reprints
  • 2021 NYC Mayoral Race
  • Power Finance
  • Power 100
  • Owners Magazine
Log In Sign Up My Account Log Out
  • Account Details
  • Email Preferences
  • Member FAQs
  • Logout

© 2017 Observer Media · Terms · Privacy

Google

google.com
Through its parent company Alphabet, search engine hegemon Google is one of the most prominent commercial real estate tenants in New York City.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based Google launched operations out of New York in the early 2000s via different small locations. But it’s biggest statement—then and to date—was the 2010 acquisition of the nearly 3 million-square-foot 111 Eighth Avenue for $1.9 billion. The building has since become Google’s East Coast headquarters and the nexus of a kind of campus on Manhattan’s lower West Side.

Its other holdings or leased property in that area include Chelsea Market and the Milk Building, two buildings connected by a pedestrian bridge and totaling more than 1.5 million square feet, as well as the planned Google Hudson Square, a collection of properties destined to comprise a 1.7 million-square-foot campus within a campus.

The moves since 2010, of course, have all been in expectation of Google growing its employee count in its East Coast hub. The company had more than 8,000 workers in New York as of 2020, and announced plans to goose that number to more than 14,000 by 2028. This is despite Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai extending the company’s work-from-home model until September 2021 due to the coronavirus and his endorsement of a kind of WFH-office hybrid after that.

As of the end of 2020, Google showed no signs of wanting to shed any of its New York presence. And the Alphabet division remains at the vanguard of the increasingly dominant tech presence in the city’s commercial real estate market.

Outside of New York, Google has that Mountain View headquarters, which runs to more than 12 square miles (with plans to create a vastly larger HQ in the same Silicon Valley city). It’s also planning a major development in downtown San Jose and in Los Angeles, where it’s one of the entities behind the redevelopment of the old Westside Pavilion mall into office space.

Finally, perhaps recognizing how its mere presences has driven up real estate costs in the San Francisco Bay Area and neighboring Silicon Valley, Google announced in late 2019 that it was going to try to create 15,000 housing units in the region. This would be done in part through rezoning land Google owns to residential.

"‘I think most board members realize that it is just a matter of time before the pension funds and institutional investors and retail investors that own the common stock of these companies start to focus on diversity,"  Ken McIntyre, CEO of the Real Estate Executive Council, said.
Features
National

Sunday Summary: Real Estate’s Diversity Problem Is a Data Problem

By The Editors
Google Headquarters
Industry
National

Google Employees Can Start to Head Back to the Office This Month

By Nicholas Rizzi
 
Trending Stories
Sales  ·  Development Rights
Florida

South Florida’s Pembroke Pines Approves Affordable Housing Development

Sales
Inland Empire

Inland Empire Multifamily Property Trades for $88M

Finance  ·  CMBS
National

CMBS Special Servicing Rates Continue to Sink

Finance  ·  Refinance
Connecticut

TD Bank Lends $25M to Refinance Greenwich Office Building

Left to right, clockwise: Craig Deitzelweig, John Mechanic, Haniel Lynn, Brendan Weiden, James von Klemperer, Dean Shapiro.
Design + Construction  ·  Leases
New York City

Here’s How Landlords Can Make Tenants Feel Comfortable About Returning to the Office

By Rebecca Baird-Remba
International investment into U.S. CRE January 2021
Finance  ·  Industry
National

Cross-Border CRE Investments in the U.S. in 2020 and Beyond

By Mack Burke
Premium
Aerial view of downtown San Francisco.
Finance  ·  Acquisition
San Francisco

Deutsche Bank Lends $160M on San Francisco Office Acquisition

By Mack Burke
Premium
A man sitting on a couch in an office.
Coronavirus  ·  Features
New York City

How Bill Rudin Fared as REBNY Chairman

By Larry Getlen
Premium
 
Trending Stories
Sales  ·  Development Rights
Florida

South Florida’s Pembroke Pines Approves Affordable Housing Development

Sales
Inland Empire

Inland Empire Multifamily Property Trades for $88M

Finance  ·  CMBS
National

CMBS Special Servicing Rates Continue to Sink

Finance  ·  Refinance
Connecticut

TD Bank Lends $25M to Refinance Greenwich Office Building

a rendering of 100 Altair in Sunnyvale, California.
Finance  ·  Construction
South Bay

Square Mile, Bank OZK Provide $114M Construction Loan for Silicon Valley Project

By Andrew Coen
Premium
Clouds drift over the L.A. Basin as rain falls during the last storm of the year on Dec. 28.
Analysis
Los Angeles

After a Year of Uncertainty, Hollywood and E-commerce Can Save LA in 2021

By Greg Cornfield
Premium
Lendlease and Aware Super are tapping into a premier tech and media market in Los Angeles, with plans to build a 500,000 office and multifamily complex.
Sales
Los Angeles

Exclusive: Lendlease, Aware Super Acquire $92M Site in LA for $600M Mixed-Use Complex

By Greg Cornfield
Premium
350 Holger Way.
Sales
California

Thor Equities Picks Up R&D Asset in San Jose for $51M

By Chava Gourarie
Premium
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has told his employees they can work from home indefinitely, while other big tech companies plan to return to the office in mid to late 2021.
Leases  ·  Office
New York City

How TAMI Tenants’ Return-to-Work Plans Are Affecting the Office Market

By Rebecca Baird-Remba
Premium
Investors are looking at areas in the Mountain West—like Denver, pictured—and the Sun Belt as safe havens for investing during the pandemic.
Finance  ·  Sales
New Jersey

Sun Belt, Mountain West Emerge As U.S. Investor Safe Havens During COVID

By Rebecca Baird-Remba
Premium
Finance  ·  Features
National

Site Unseen: Grappling With Due Diligence Amid COVID-19

By Mack Burke
Premium
The property is located at 19000 Homestead Road in the city of Cupertino.
Sales
California

[Update] Silicon Valley Medical Office That’s Fully Leased Trades for $103M: Sources

By Greg Cornfield
Premium
Avalon Venice on Rose
Sales  ·  Residential
Los Angeles

AvalonBay Sells 70-Unit Property in LA’s Venice to TA Realty for $65M

By Greg Cornfield
Premium
The property is located at 5415 Jandy Place in the tech and media-dominated Silicon Beach area of L.A.’s Westside.
Leases
Los Angeles

Vista Studios Leases 21K SF in Silicon Beach

By Greg Cornfield
Premium
Sean Burton.
Coronavirus
California

Multifamily in a Pandemic: Q&A with Cityview’s Sean Burton

By Greg Cornfield
Premium
424 Fifth Avenue
Coronavirus
New York City

What Amazon’s Lord & Taylor Move Means For NYC and Office Work

By Nicholas Rizzi
Premium

  • Leases
    • Industrial
    • Retail
    • Office
  • Finance
    • Acquisition
    • Construction
    • CMBS
    • Distress
    • Refinance
  • Sales
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Mixed Use
    • Land
    • Hotels
    • Development Rights
  • Design + Construction
    • Architecture
    • Construction
    • Infrastructure
    • Policy
    • Urban Planning
    • Neighborhoods
  • Technology
  • More
    • Features
    • Columnists
    • Analysis
    • Research
    • Industry
    • Legal
    • Players
    • Transportation
  • About
    • Advertise
    • Newsletters
    • Contact
    • Reprints

Read the latest edition of the Commercial Observer online!

July 28th 2020 Magazine Issue Cover
© 2021 Observer Media Terms Privacy Cookie Settings Do not sell my data Sitemap