Google expansion produces city land deal
Tech giant to pay $21M for Sunnyvale property, adding to $1B investment
SUNNYVALE >> Google has struck a deal to buy five acres of city-owned Sunnyvale land that’s part of the old Onizuka Air Force Station, in a fresh indication of expansion plans by the search giant.
Mountain View-based Google has agreed to pay $21 million for the site, a triangle-shaped property near the corner of Innovation Way and West Moffett Park Boulevard, according to a Sunnyvale city staff report.
“Longer term redevelopment of the property by the buyer will result in higher property tax and business tax revenues to the city,” the Sunnyvale government staff report stated.
At one point, city reports stated, Sunnyvale officials were considering four competing offers from groups or companies that sought to buy the property, which is near busy State Route 237. The final round of bids ranged from $19.1 million to the $21 million Google bid.
The Onizuka site is located in Sunnyvale’s Moffett Park district, a business area where Google is eyeing significant growth and office developments.
Just a few days ago, Google filed a proposal with Sunnyvale city planners to develop a project consisting primarily of two big office buildings with a striking appearance. Together, the new offices would total 1.04 million square feet, enough space to accommodate 4,500 Google employees, Google said.
Google also said this week that it hopes housing could be part of its development efforts in Sunnyvale’s Moffett Park area, as a way to help people live closer to their Silicon Valley work-
places and ease Bay Area traffic woes.
Sunnyvale represents just one facet of Google’s widening expansion plans in Silicon Valley.
The company has also been buying and leasing buildings and properties, and sketching out development plans near its Googleplex headquarters in northern Mountain View.
Downtown San Jose has also drawn significant Google interest. Google and its development ally Trammell Crow are buying properties to create a transit-oriented Google village near the Diridon train station and SAP entertainment center.
The tech giant hopes to build 6 million to 8 million square feet of offices as the primary feature of a transit village on the west side of downtown San Jose, where 15,000 to 20,000 Google employees could work.
In Sunnyvale, Google has spent at least $1 billion during 2017 to obtain roughly 50 properties. The company intends to demolish buildings on at least some of the sites to pave the way for big office complexes.
The Onizuka site in Sunnyvale is next to a big office complex that Google is leasing, and a short distance from the sections of Moffett Park where Google has been buying old and new buildings, as well as empty land.
“It would be up to Google to propose a specific development plan for the Onizuka site that would then go before the city for review,” Kent Steffens, Sunnyvale’s city manager, said Friday.
The sale of the Onizuka parcels isn’t expected to be completed through a recorded purchase until sometime during the early part of 2018.
“Google is committed to investing in the future of Sunnyvale,” Mark Golan, Google’s vice president of real estate and workplace, Bay Area, said Friday. “We look forward to working with the city and community to incorporate this site into our overall development plans for the Moffett Park area once the sale has been finalized.”