NEW YORK -- Google said Monday it will 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 workforce over the next decade.
The centerpiece of the 1.7 million-square-foot hub will the St. John's Terminal building on Washington Street, with Google also set to occupy space at two buildings nearby on Hudson Street.
It is Google's second significant move to increase its Manhattan footprint this year. In March, it spent $2.4 billion to buy the Chelsea Market building, where it already had offices. At the time, a Google spokesman said the company also planned to add 320,000 square feet of space in a redevelopment of Pier 57 on the Hudson River.
"New York City continues to be a great source of diverse, world-class talent," Ruth Porat, Google's chief financial officer, said in a statement Monday. "That's what brought Google to the city in 2000, and that's what keeps us here."
Google will compete for that talent with Amazon, which announced last month that it plans to add 25,000 employees at a site in Long Island City, Queens. The city was one of two winners of a yearlong contest to land the retail giant's so-called second headquarters.
The moves in New York by Google and Amazon -- and Apple's announcement last week that it was adding a $1 billion hub in Austin, Texas, and thousands of jobs in other cities -- highlight the ways in which the search for talent is pushing giant technology companies beyond their West Coast roots.
Google underscored that point Monday, noting that it has grown faster outside its Bay Area base than it has there, opening new offices and data centers in places like Boulder, Colo.; Bridgeport, Ala.; Clarksville, Tenn.; Detroit; and Los Angeles.
In contrast to Amazon's splashy announcement about its move into New York, which has stirred up organized opposition, Google's growth in the city has been quiet. And unlike Amazon, Google has not sought public subsidies.
"We've been growing steadily for the past 18 years without heralding trumpets, or asking for support from the government," William Floyd, Google's head of external affairs in New York, said this month.
Google's expansion has not come entirely without criticism. The owners of some neighborhood restaurants say they are losing potential customers because of the company's free-food-at-work policies.
And some Chelsea residents complain that the company's presence has been a gentrifying force that has driven up the cost of housing in the area, a suggestion with data to support it.
The median household income in Chelsea climbed to more than $104,000 in 2016 from $78,000 in 2000, according to an analysis of census data by the research firm Social Explorer.
Business on 12/18/2018