Google Buys $1.8 Billion New York Office As Payroll Expands

NEW YORK — Google has bought a New York office building where more than 2,000 of its employees work.

The Internet search leader confirmed the purchase Wednesday, three weeks after The New York Times reported Google Inc. would pay $1.8 billion for a 15-story building that spans an entire city block.

Google Inc. didn't disclose how much it paid for the office. The company moved into the former Port Authority building in 2006. It has become the second largest concentration of Google employees, ranking behind the company's Mountain View headquarters.

Engineers and advertising representatives primarily work at the New York office, located at 111 Eighth Ave. With about 2.9 million square feet, the office has more space than the Empire State building.

Google says it plans to add more workers in the office.

Comments

[Shaun Dawson]

06:51 PM on 12/26/2010

Its good to see Goggle investing in New York. Now they have an East Coast connection. It would be great to see more innovation coming from this part of the country.

[zbig]

04:55 AM on 12/26/2010

Google can afford it since it pays 2.4% tax thanks to its accountants. Google should do 'no evil' and pay its fair share of taxes which pay for education, clean air, etc.

[Indigo River]

02:05 AM on 12/26/2010

Oh, look. Booming companies move from blue state to....blue state.

Seems like corporations actually don't give a sh%# about lower taxes. Just more evidence that debunks irrational right-wing reasoning.
Wait until blue states set up single payer health-care systems that save companies and employees thousands of dollars.

[Esther Fink]

11:04 PM on 12/25/2010

What can I sell to Google? My latest obsessive thought.

[holyghostie]

10:04 PM on 12/25/2010

Let google run the MTA.

[Indigo River]

02:04 AM on 12/26/2010

Anything but the MTA. They wasted a whole $500 million on the new South ferry station. In California, we are currently building a whole HSR station for the same price. What on earth is going on over there?

[noob1]

07:46 AM on 12/25/2010

welcome to google east, eh?

[Amishguy]

10:46 PM on 12/24/2010

Jimmy McMillan was right the rent is too damn high. My mind is blown every time I hear something about NYC real estate. Can you imagine 1 building for $1.8billion?! That is enough money for multiple generations of a family to live like kings and never work for their entire lives.

That being said I'm really interested to know what they paid in rent before they bought the building.

oh and also.. Yay Google! Hire more!!

[Glenn Bolton]

02:23 PM on 12/23/2010

I won't move back to NY for much. I would, however, to be that music supervisor Google is looking for.

[MyTake]

11:35 AM on 12/23/2010

Why should anyone applaud this?

Exxon and General Electric passed on their "Irish" international income tax shifting scam to Google which saw them only pay 4.5% in federal income tax in any Nation they operated in last year.

So lucrative was this tax saving, that they swelled their coffers and gave everyone raises and bonuses.

So they reached into their coffers and bought the block while the MIDDLE CLASS in these Nations were taxed extra to make up for Goggle's tax avoidance scam.

The CORPORATE STATE that arises out of the U.S. and spreads itself internationally is absolutely UGLY.

So lets give a year end round of applause to Google and their high powered law firms for executing this international tax avoidance scam to a "T".

Oh, and General Electric filed some 7000 different tax returns around the globe and ended up claiming a loss on its U.S. operations and paid NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX!

And I am sure that Obama and the IRS are looking closely at this scam! OMG, I forgot. Obama and the Google Exec's did a fund raiser not to long ago. I hope everyone got to pat each other on the back.

[StansDad]

03:12 PM on 12/23/2010

Clearly you don't understand the money cycle, see all wealth is derived from labor, so it only makes sense that those who labor give all the money to the rich and then they can do the er the memahd and then it aaallll trickles down

[Amishguy]

10:54 PM on 12/24/2010

I'm not going to fault a company for not paying taxes via legal loopholes. If I were a stock holder I would be upset if the company didn't do that. Keep in mind the key word here is legal. To fix these things we need to fix the loopholes. There is no such thing as ethics or morals in business only profit and legality.

Meanwhile why you hate google because they are acting as a corporation you fail to notice the fact that they are hiring! They are adding jobs in the US. That is a good thing. Those people pay taxes. They actually pay a good amount of tax because Google pays very very well.

Keep in mind they don't have to pay as well. They don't have to invest in billion dollar buildings in NY they could do all that for fractions of the cost in 100 other countries.