Google to spend $2.1B for Manhattan anchor

Governor, mayor praise investment in NYC real estate.

NEW YORK — Google is planning to buy New York City’s St. John’s Terminal for $2.1 billion, making it the anchor of its Hudson Square campus.

The announcement Tuesday arrives with the city buffeted by the pandemic and most offices still largely unpopulated.

While CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post late last month that Google is delaying its global return to offices until Jan. 10, the commitment by the company to further invest in New York City real estate was trumpeted by both Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who called it “one of the shots in the arm we need as part of our comeback.”

“Google is leading the way here in our economic comeback but also further asserting what we know more and more: New York City is now one of the great tech capitals in the world,” de Blasio said at a virtual news conference Tuesday.

Google has had a footprint in New York City for more than two decades and it is the company’s largest location outside California. Its 1.7 million-square-foot Hudson Square campus is on the Hudson River, just south of the New York University campus and Greenwich Village.

“As Google moves toward a more flexible hybrid approach to work, coming together in person to collaborate and build community will remain an important part of our future,” said Ruth Porat, the company’s chief financial officer. “It is why we continue investing in our offices around the world.

“Our decision to exercise our option to purchase St. John’s Terminal further builds upon our existing plans to invest more than $250 million this year in our New York campus presence,” Porat said.

MARK LENNIHAN/AP FILE Google has had a footprint in New York City for more than two decades; it is the company’s largest location outside California. Its 1.7 million-square-foot Hudson Square campus is on the Hudson River.