Looks like The GOOG will soon be expanding its New York City footprint. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to lease an additional 94,000-plus square feet at the Chelsea Market.
The great irony is that, thanks to that swank employee cafeteria, Googlers are the techies least likely to be longing for proximity to the delicious smorgasbord that is the Chelsea Market. Why bother paying for a lobster roll when there’s suckling pig in the employee cafeteria?
Google (GOOGL)’s had 100,000 square feet of Chelsea Market space to its name for the last five years or so, but right now it’s mostly home to sales employees. A source told the Journal that, with the space practically doubling, it’s likely that other types of workers will be taking up residence. While the company does own 111 8th Avenue, it’s apparently discovering it isn’t easy to oust tenants (even with a buyout) and therefore having trouble expanding in the space.
“Any time we can get big space [at Chelsea Market], it opens it up for the technology and media companies that are having trouble locating creative space that reeks of their image,” said David Falk, of real-estate brokerage Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, who represented the owner of Chelsea Market, Jamestown Properties.
Conveniently for creative-space-strapped tech companies, Jamestown Properties is currently in the process of attempting to expand Chelsea Market, to the tune of 290,000 square feet of new office space. The local community is none too pleased with the notion; the City Council will vote yea or nay by the end of the month.
Googlers, look for Betabeat on your next trip downstairs to Jacques Torres. How do you think we get those Rumor Roundup items, anyway?