Google CEO Sundar Pichai and 550 Washington Street (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, 550 Washington Street via COOKFOX Architects)
Don’t bother plugging “New York’s biggest believers in tech future” into your favorite search engine: Google already has the answer.
The tech giant’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said he was optimistic about the company’s prospects in the Big Apple, where it plans to continue expanding its presence. Reported.
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“I am personally bullish long-term on our growth in New York as a business,” Pichai told the publication. “And we would only do that if we were optimistic about access to technology talent and the ability to scale. »
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has a lot at stake. Pichai’s statements come a year after Google paid $2.1 billion for 550 Washington Street, the $1.3 million west side office building. square feet he plans to move into next year. The tech company had reached an agreement to lease the building, also known as St. John’s Terminal, to Oxford Properties in 2018, but had exercised an outright option to buy.
Combined with 315 and 345 Hudson Street, its Hudson Square campus will span approximately 1.7 million square feet when complete.
Google employs about 12,000 people in the city and said it plans to add another 2,000 when it opens its new office. Its parent company, Alphabet, has 156,500 employees worldwide, according to Fortune.
Pichai’s assurance of Google’s growth in the city comes as other big tech companies reportedly backtrack on similar plans.
Facebook parent Meta Companies had planned to expand its space at Vornado Realty Trust’s 770 Broadway by 300,000 square feet before changing tack in July, Bloomberg reported, while Amazon backed out of a lease at 5 Manhattan West from Brookfield at Hudson Yards.
—Holden Walter-Warner