Alphabet Inc’s Google on Tuesday announced plans to buy a New York office building for US$2.1 billion, confirming its push into the US’ largest city despite the COVID-19 teleworking trend.
This is the largest real-estate purchase in the US for an office building since the beginning of the global spread of COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal quoted Real Capital Analytics as saying.
Google already rents the premises in Manhattan, which are located on the site of a former railroad terminal in the Hudson Square neighborhood.
Photo: AFP
The Silicon Valley giant envisions a campus with a total surface area of 160,000m2 by mid-2023 that would serve as its New York headquarters for sales and partnerships.
The final site is to be spread over three buildings between Hudson Street and Washington Street, with construction of two of them already completed.
The firm, whose headquarters are in Mountain View, California, has made other billion-dollar purchases in New York, including the US$2.4 billion it plunked down on the Chelsea Market building.
“Google has been fortunate to call New York City home for more than 20 years, during which time we have grown to 12,000 employees,” Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said in a statement.
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