Last month, Google reportedly paid Verizon $1 billion to further expand its already significant real estate holdings in Sunnyvale. The properties include Yahoo’s former headquarters at Bordeaux Drive and North Mathilda Avenue, purchased by Verizon in 2017.
Although the new acquisitions lack any publicly stated plan, the properties are in Sunnyvale’s Moffett Park neighborhood, an area where Google already has holdings with substantial plans in the works. In addition to its Tech Corners campus at 801 Eleventh Ave., the tech giant also bought a nearby office complex on Caribbean Drive last year with a development application filed with the City of Sunnyvale in September.
The Caribbean Drive project is on a 40.5-acre site bounded by West Caribbean Drive, Mathilda Avenue and Borregas Avenue. It’s envisioned for the construction of two new five-story office buildings totaling 1,041,890 square feet. The project would result in the demolition of existing 10 parcels of office and manufacturing buildings totaling 710,381 square feet. The project will include a parking structure, a central utility plant and surface parking. A public comment period for the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ended on May 31.
Google opened its first office outside of California in 2000. Now the tech company has offices and data centers in 21 states. In February of this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the company’s plan for vast investment in real estate across the U.S. in 2019. This expansion follows 10,000 new Google hires and $9 billion invested the previous year. Now an investment of $13 billion is being made this year in data centers and office buildings in 14 states.
“2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it,” said Pichai.
In terms of other development out West, Google plans to open its first data center in Nevada and expand its Washington office. In Southern California, projects include the redevelopment of the Westside Pavillion and Spruce Goose Hangar in the greater Los Angeles area.
I’m glad to hear that Google is expanding in a big way outside the Bay Area. There are lots of communities in the US that could use the economic boost and benefits a company like Google can bring, and it also helps to ease some of the pressure off of the Bay Area. Plus, companies are better off when they have employees from a diverse background, and not all from Northern California.
“Plus, companies are better off when they have employees from a diverse background, and not all from Northern California.”
Certainly by definition, once someone moves to the Bay Area to work for a company in the Bay Area, they become “from Northern California” in that sense, but it is FAR from the case that most or even a large fraction of those being hired grew-up in Northern California. They come from all over the country, and at least a few different places around the world.