Google boss says he’s a believer in NYC offices

Don’t bother plugging “biggest believers in New York City’s tech future” into your favorite search engine: Google already has the answer.

The tech giant’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said he’s optimistic about the company’s prospects in the Big Apple, where it expects to continue growing its presence, Crain’s reported.

“I’m personally long-term bullish on our growth in New York as a company,” Pichai told the publication. “And we would do that only if we’re optimistic to access to tech talent and being able to scale up.”

The Mountain View, California-based firm has a lot at stake. Pichai’s statements come a year after Google paid $2.1 billion for 550 Washington Street, the 1.3 million-square-foot West Side office building it expects to move into next year. The tech company had struck a deal to lease the building, otherwise known as St. John’s Terminal, from Oxford Properties in 2018, but exercised an option to buy it outright.

Combined with nearby 315 and 345 Hudson Street, its Hudson Square campus will span roughly 1.7 million square feet when completed.

Google employs about 12,000 people in the city and has said it expects to add another 2,000 when its new office opens. Its parent company, Alphabet, has 156,500 employees worldwide, according to Fortune.

Pichai’s reassurance about Google’s growth in the city comes as other big tech firms reportedly backtrack on similar plans.

Facebook parent Meta Companies had planned to expand its space at Vornado Realty Trust’s 770 Broadway by 300,000 square feet before changing its tune in July, Bloomberg reported, while Amazon backed away from a lease at Brookfield’s 5 Manhattan West in Hudson Yards.

— Holden Walter-Warner