It is called «Googleplex» and it is an ambitious and highly ambitious investment of hers Google for the future of the work of its thousands of employees: a 1.7 million-square-foot office complex in three different locations in New York.
315 and 345 in Hudson Square and on the other hand, its headquarters, in a an impressive $ 2.1 billion building in downtown Manhattan.
As the company announced a few days ago, it bought the specific office building, the area of which is equivalent to two huge building blocks, investing in living work, despite the extensive teleworking due to pandemic.
To date, the new building of the technological giant, at 550 Washington Street, was known as St. John’s Terminal and was the end of the West Side of New York Central Railroad.
The building is located in Hudson Square, a neighborhood in west Manhattan between Tribeca, Grenovich Village and Soho. Very large companies are based in the area, among them Disney, which chose the area for its offices in New York.
It is the most expensive office building sale in the US since the beginning of the pandemic, but also one of the most expensive in the country’s history, according to data company Real Capital Analytics, which adds that the building will be available for use by summer of 2023.
According to the Googleplex project, Google is expanding its offices in New York in recent years and now employs about 12,000 people in the city with the company intending to hire another 2,000 employees in the near future. This is its largest workforce outside of California.
Google in turn confirmed that this building will become, from 2023, the headquarters of Google Global Business Organization.
The announcement of the company comes immediately after its decision Amazon to build a large office complex on Queens Long Island, creating 25,000 jobs.
THE Apple It also announced just last week that it plans to build a $ 1 billion plain in Austin, Texas, as well as expand its operations in New York.
However, this move by Google takes place in an extremely precarious period for the market, due to the pandemic with leading companies, such as Condé Nast and JPMorgan Chase to vacate and rent out their offices for the sake of distance working.
According to Newmark, a real estate service company, almost the 19% of Manhattan offices are available for rent.
No to teleworking – Yes to going back to the office
Last March, Google, which has a stable presence in New York since 2000, clarified that although the company encourages its employees to work remotely, through the method of teleworking, in reality – and with the pandemic slowly coming under control – what the colossus eagerly wants is on the one hand the return of employees in their offices and on the other hand the expansion of its workplaces and the pay cuts for employees who work from home.
As the Daily Mail reported in an extensive article, “An employee living in Stamford, Connecticut, one hour from New York by train, would be paid 15% less if he worked from home, while a colleague from the same “An office in New York would not see a pay cut if he worked from home.”
Basically, Google keeps it experiment which started years ago [και σίγουρα προ πανδημίας] in business and start-ups in Silicon Valley, where eWorkers who decide to work from home are paid less due to the savings they make on their travels and on expenses such as food.
However, Google seems willing to fight even in the most adverse conditions, proving that it does not understand… pandemics.
“Our investment in New York is a huge part of our commitment to grow and invest in US facilities, offices and jobs. In fact, we are growing faster outside the Bay Area than within that area, “said Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google.
Strong proof in this direction, the fact that in 2018, the Google buys Chelsea Market in Manhattan for $ 2.4 billion where the office space occupies an entire square on 8th Avenue between 15th and 16th streets.
As expected, Google’s announcement received praise. The president of Manhattan City Hall, Gail Brewer, “New York is the place for world-class talent and this move by Google proves it,” he said.
What remains to be seen now is when and how, pandemic, this inclusive “return of office workers” will be achieved;
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