San Francisco — In the midst of an exceptional growth for rapid expansion in Mountain View, global search engine titan Google over the weekend made its first move into Sunnyvale, inked a deal to lease four office buildings in Sunnyvale, California that will be able to accommodate as many as 2,900 employees as the company continues its growth spurt.
Evidently as Google is diversifying its huge empire, it is thus expanding its offices in Mountain View and Sunnyvale California, leasing additional space and even planning on re-constructing more dense offices. However, The Sunnyvale campus would mark Google’s largest presence in Silicon Valley outside of Mountain View.
Combined with other property deals the company has confirmed, Google this year alone has vested into annexing at least 1.9 million square feet in Mountain View and Sunnyvale — the equivalent of a major regional shopping mall.
Unfortunately, some of the major projects, however, have caused some contention with city planners, but Google intends to make 2011 its biggest hiring year ever, planning to add 6,000 employees worldwide.
The search giant Google last week confirmed that it had leased the 716,000-square-foot Technology Corners at Moffett Park. The 26.5-acre campus is on Innovation Way and 11th Avenue, neighboring the Moffett Towers (as shown in the map above) and the southeastern corner of Moffett Field. The Class A campus was built in 2000 by the Jay Paul Co. and includes a light rail station and a 16,000 square foot gym.
Google will move in starting in February 2013, at which time the buildings could become the home to 2,860 new employees, a Google spokesperson said. According to Silicon Valley reports, this latest property would brand Google as the largest occupier in the Silicon Valley outside of its headquarters in Mountain View, contributing to 1.9 million square feet of office premises it has already committed to adding this year alone.
The internet titan has rented the last large vacant office campus available in Mountain View, “The Quad” on Ellis Street, earlier this year. The company has revealed that it may soon build more space on its Mountain View properties, but plans have yet to be submitted for city review.
The company’s vigorous performance has fueled the aggressive hunt for space. In the second quarter, Google reported $2.5 billion in profits on revenues of $9 billion. But the financial performance was bolstered by more than Google’s dominance in Internet searches.
“This is the most remarkable leasing activity in this area in a decade,” said Phil Mahoney, executive vice president of the Cornish & Carey, the leasing company that just settled the agreement with Google, Sunnyvale’s economic development director Connie Verceles feels that Google’s move will be great for the area.
“It is absolutely fantastic news to get Google,” she stated. “It is great that Google continues to expand in close proximity to their headquarters.”
“As we continue to grow, it is necessary to find space for our future employees close to our headquarters,” said David Radcliffe, Google’s vice president of real estate and workplace services. “That is why we have leased space at Moffett Park’s Technology Corners. We look forward to working with the local community as we continue to grow.”
According to property specialists in the area, if Google had not leased the Sunnyvale premises at Moffett Park’s Technology Corners, there was plenty of interest from other tech giants. It is reported that other tech companies are also on a shopping spree for Silicon Valley real estate, and has been eyeing the offices since 2007.
“The Class A office sector is very vibrant in Silicon Valley,” said Mahoney. “Multiple companies were vying for these buildings,” added Mahoney. The four buildings are known as the “Ariba Campus” and are owned by developer Jay Paul, which also owns the nearby Moffett Towers complex.
More than a third of all Googlers reside in Mountain View and the surrounding area. Early this year, Google hired 4,368 new employees, and that hiring spree continues; as projected, Google will have a record hiring year. The leases and expansion slated for 2013 indicate that the hiring spree is likely to continue for at least the next two years. It seems that Google will continue to expand its headquarters to accommodate an employee base that extends 15,000 or more employees for the Mountain View region alone.
“Tech will continue to expand universally,” said Erik Davidson, a Wells Fargo economist and deputy chief investment officer for the company’s private bank. “Technology is one of the better arrows the Bay Area economy has in its quiver right now.”
Further expansions appear in the works. In addition to the new land lease and building purchases, Google is hoping to construct bridges over a creek that separates the leased land from the main Google offices. This has brought up some concerns for city planners, who feel that the bridges could interfere with public trails. However, both Google and city representatives have indicated they are optimistic that a fair compromise can be reached.