General Motors Opens 50K sf Tech Magnet in Mountain View

General Motors has planted its hood ornament in the heart of Silicon Valley with a nearly 50,000-square-foot office in Mountain View.

The Detroit-based carmaker leased the two-story office building at 1330 Terra Bella Avenue, a mile from Microsoft’s campus and Google’s headquarters, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.

GM opened the swank office, with high ceilings and an open office layout, to attract tech workers. Financial terms of the five-year lease were not disclosed.

“We’re going to be growing and expanding in the Bay Area because we understand that to have the very best customer experience and the very best software in our vehicles, we have to have the very best people,” GM CEO Mary Barra told the Business Journal at an opening event.

The 49,400-square-foot building is part of Terra Bella, a three-building campus owned by The Irvine Company, based in Irvine, according to a marketing brochure. It was built in 1972 and revamped inside and out two years ago, according to LoopNet.

Barra sees GM’s Mountain View Technical Center as a hub to attract new software engineers, electrical hardware engineers and mechanical engineering specialists for its future internal combustion, electric and autonomous vehicles, based on vehicle software.

GM plans to launch six electric vehicles and six internal combustion engine vehicles this year, according to executives. GM subsidiary Cruise, with office space in San Francisco, is a leader in autonomous vehicle development.

The Mountain View office is bigger than previous GM offices in Palo Alto and Sunnyvale.

The company’s lease on an approximately 27,500-square-foot Palo Alto office at 220 Portage Avenue ends this month, with employees shifting to the new Mountain View office.

GM’s almost 20,000-square-foot office at 955 Benecia Avenue in Sunnyvale is not part of the initial move to Mountain View, and will stay open, according to the manufacturer.

— Dana Bartholomew