Edited by: Fern Sidman
As the economic devastation of the Covid pandemic continues to have ripple effects across New York City, the New York Post recently reported that search engine giant Google is continuing plans to increase its footprint in the Big Apple. This comes despite the fact that their rivals in the high tech arena have put their plans for expansion in New York on hold because of employees who have voiced their preference for remote work rather than commuting to the office.
Speaking to the Crain’s New York Business web site, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., expressed his confidence that the economic prospects and the commercial real estate market would thrive in the days and years to come in New York City, as was reported by the Post.
Pichai said, “I’m personally long-term bullish on our growth in New York as a company. And we would do that only if we’re optimistic to access to tech talent and being able to scale up.”
The Google executive has backed up his sanguine words with concrete actions. When speaking with Crain’s, Pichai said that last year Google made public its plans to purchase the St. John’s Terminal building at West Houston Street near the Hudson River for a whopping $2.1 billion, as was reported by the Post.
Google’s plans for its presence in New York City include opening offices at the location by the middle of 2023, Pichai told Crain’s New York.
Moreover, the Post reported that the search engine company is in the midst of developing two other sites in the Hudson Square section of Manhattan. With the three buildings that Google has its focus on, on total the measurements are approximately 1.7 million square feet.
Google is also planning to increase its number of employees. Last September, Google had 12,000 people working for them in the Big Apple and now that the company is investing in more commercial office space, they are aiming to add another 2,000 people to their growing payroll in the coming years, as was reported by the Post.
Earlier this year, Google unveiled a new campus on Pier 57 that will include office space in three buildings, the Post reported.
What attracted Google to the New York City area, according to what Pichai told Crain’s was that the city was host to more than 1000 fintech startup companies and that the tech environment was on its way to burgeoning into something quite impactful, the Post reported.
The Post also reported that at least 20 of those companies have attained “unicorn status” — meaning their private valuation is worth at least $1 billion.
Pichai told Crain’s, “When I looked at specific sectors, like fintech, I was surprised at the scale and number of startups in New York.” He also said that another hook for his company’s expansion in New York was the diversity that is inherent to the city.
Published reports indicated that Google has announced a $20 million grant to impart computer science education to 11 million students in the US. This brings Google’s total commitment to computer science education to more than $240 million since 2004.
Pichai’s interview with Crain’s coincided with Google’s announcement that they have partnered with several other organizations and provided them funds to train people for jobs in the growing market including CUNY’s Computing Integrated Teacher Education project.
Google’s competitors in the tech arena, however, are reluctant to expand its presence in the Big Apple, the Post reported.
