Google’s view on coworking spaces

The New York Chapter of CoreNet Global, a leading organization for corporate real estate professionals, regularly addresses the topics of owning vs. sharing vs. leased spaces in its programming. Paul Darrah, Google’s director of NYC real estate and active CoreNet member, shared his views on where corporate real estate currently stands.

Darrah said that large companies can find benefits in either leasing, owning, or sharing real estate. Leasing offers identity and flexibility, while owning provides full control and commitment of a location.

Sharing allows companies to be involved in a larger community, as well as providing access to free amenities. Despite this, it is typically not economical to work out of a coworking space for longer than three years compared to a traditional lease.

Nevertheless, shared space can be a perfect long-term solution for businesses that are not expected to grow beyond a certain point. It can also give a business the ability to grow globally without building or leasing your own spaces.

The biggest issue with shared spaces is confidentiality, according to Darrah. It also can affect company culture since you are in a space with employees from various companies.

Darrah says that Google focuses on providing great workspaces and amenities for its employees.

“A key opportunity to affect change is to focus on process improvement that enables us to be more efficient in our delivery and operational support model as we continue to scale in size,” Darrah said. “The most important parts of my role are to continue to deliver real estate and seating capacity that enables the business to grow, to provide unique workspace and amenities that enable the business to be productive and for Google to continue to attract and retain talent.