Google’s footprint in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood is inescapable.
The tech giant made its debut at 111 Eighth Avenue 11 years ago, dishing out what was the second-highest amount paid for a single building in the U.S. at $1.8 billion.
Since then, Google has continued to expand its presence in Chelsea. However, the pace in which it makes itself known is expected to slow as their real estate plans hit the brakes on making lavish deals.
In March, Google announced it had plans to spend around $250 million on its New York offices and grow its headcount from 11,000 to 14,000. However, compared to other major firm’s in the city, this number is miniscule.
The trend for overall real estate plans seems to be shifting towards suburbs and secondary cities. Google itself is looking at outer boroughs for satellite offices so workers have a shorter commute to the office.
Last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that around 20% of the company’s staff could work remotely indefinitely and that the majority of other workers could shift to a hybrid approach.
“Our campuses have been at the heart of our Google community and the majority of our employees still want to be on campus some of the time,” said Pichai. “Yet many of us would also enjoy the flexibility of working from home a couple days of week, spending time in another city for part of the year, or even moving there permanently. Google’s future workplace will have room for all of these possibilities.”