The “Google effect” is real, San Jose locals will tell you, if you just believe.
Google’s proposal for a downtown tech campus, a mixed-use development where up to 20,000 of its employees may eventually work, was announced in December 2016 and is still winding its way through local approvals and negotiations, but speculation is off and running.
The proof of the theory, according to the San Jose Mercury News, is Boston Properties announcement that it will build three new office towers on land they’ve been sitting on for years.
“With the velocity in the downtown San Jose market and the Google bounce, it might be the right time to do this project,” development consultant Bob Staedler told the paper. “If you were a tech company that wanted to jump into downtown before Google got started, this could be a way for that to happen.”
Office space in the city is currently leasing for $500 per square foot.
Last month, The Real Deal revealed the search engine giant was in contract to acquire Chelsea Market for over $2 billion. [San Jose Mercury News] — Erin Hudson