Google Buys Manhattan Office Complex For US$2.1b

USA – Search giant Google announced on Tuesday (21 September) that it’s purchasing an office development in New York City for a whopping US$2.1 billion, according to various media reports.

At that price tag, it’s the priciest transaction for a single office building in the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing data from Real Capital Analytics (RCA).

In particular, Google has exercised its option to acquire the St. John’s Terminal building in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighbourhood that it is currently leasing. It will be part of Google’s 1.7 million sq ft Hudson Square campus, the search giant’s 2nd largest campus after its main headquarters in Mountain View, California.

The Hudson Square campus, which Google expanded several times, also includes the Chelsea Market, which the search giant purchased for US$2.4 billion.

“We’ve made substantial progress in building out our 1.7 million-square-foot Hudson Square campus that will serve as the New York headquarters for our Global Business Organization, which includes our sales and partnership teams,” Google said in a blog post.

“These investments we are making in our NYC campus presence will give us the capacity to grow our workforce in the city to more than 14,000 employees in the coming years, and we look forward to continuing to be an active part of New York City’s vibrant community,” it added.

The St. John’s Terminal was originally built as a freight train facility in the 1930s, but it was converted into a warehouse in the 1960s and then office space in the 1980s. It is currently under renovation and Google expects to open the facility by the middle of 2023.

Just like many of the company’s other office buildings, the search giant intends to convert the commercial property into a humongous glass structure with plenty of outdoor spaces and greenery.

Google’s acquisition of St. John’s Terminal is expected to be completed in Q1 2022.