Google gets go-ahead to build mega-campus

Google will build it, and mostly likely they will come.

The tech behemoth received the green light from San Jose city officials to develop its 80-acre mega-campus with residential, office and retail space, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The spot is about 15 miles east of the company’s Mountain View headquarters.

Four years in the making, the multibillion-dollar project would include 4,000 housing units, 7.3 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of retail and other mixed-use space, along with 15 acres of park land.

Under the agreement, Google will also contribute $155 million to a community fund, to be used for affordable housing, homelessness and job training. It will also pay about $1 billion toward public infrastructure needs. In 2018, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo touted the financial benefits of the project, saying it stood “in stark contrast to other cities handing out billions in local tax dollars to attract big companies.” The following year, the city approved a process to expedite the project’s environmental review.

Google, which is expected to start work on the complex next year, will transfer some land to the city for a planned affordable housing development, according to the report.

Before the pandemic, plans were to have 25,000 employees work out of that new campus. That would likely change, given Google this month said some of its workers will be remote.

[SFC] — Isabella Farr