Google To Spend Over $1 Billion On Major Expansion In New York City

Google announced on Monday that it will add a $1 billion campus in New York City’s West Village with a plan to employ 7,000 more workers over the next decade, which is double the amount of its current workforce, according to the New York Times. The 1.7-million-square-foot campus will include the St. John’s Terminal building on Washington Street as well as two other buildings on Hudson Street along the Hudson River.

The search giant already expanded their New York presence in March earlier this year when they spent $2.4 billion to buy the Chelsea Market building, where Google already had offices. Google also said at the time that it would add 320,000 square feet of space on the Hudson River during a redevelopment of Pier 57.

Google opened its first office in the city nearly 20 years ago. Both its Chelsea and Pier 57 locations are about a mile north of the new campus in Hudson Square.

“New York City continues to be a great source of diverse, world-class talent. That’s what brought Google to the city in 2000, and that’s what keeps us here,” said Ruth Porat, Google’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, in a Google blog post on Monday.

Google said it would expand its presence in New York City with a $1 billion campus in the West Village, allowing the company to double the size of its 7,000-employee work force over the next decade https://t.co/41weVfUHqI

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 17, 2018

This year, the company added offices and data centers in Colorado, Alabama, Tennessee, Detroit, and Los Angeles, expanding more outside Google’s Bay Area base than within it.

Porat also said in the post that Google will continue to support the New York communities that house its workers. The company has given over $150 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in the city as well as a $1.5 million donation to the Stonewall National Monument Preservation Project.

Google has also shown support for New York’s public resources, such as the High Line and Hudson River Park. The search giant partnered with the New York City Public Library System to give free Wi-Fi hotspots to students and families without Wi-Fi in their own homes.

Grow With Google, the company’s “initiative to create economic opportunities for all Americans,” will host a learning center on the ground floor of its office in Chelsea.

“We’ll continue to deepen our commitments in STEM education, workforce development and access to technology,” Porat said. “Grow with Google will host free hands-on workshops, one-on-one coaching and community events with local partners so that New Yorkers have the opportunity to gain the skills needed to thrive in today’s digital economy.”

Google’s latest New York expansion comes one month after Amazon announced that one of its second headquarter locations would open in Long Island, New York, creating an additional 25,000 jobs, according to USA Today.