Google's planned campus
rejected
The tide is turning against
Google abroad and at home. A number of anti-trust rulings have
gone against tech giant Google in Europe, with world governments
seeking to rein the company in. Now problems are cropping up in
Google's backyard, namely Mountain View, California, where the
company is headquartered. The city of Mountain View has awarded
smaller tech company, LinkedIn, a massive swathe of land,
rejecting Google's bid for the property.
In what is being described as a
"stinging defeat" for Google, the city awarded LinkedIn 1.4
million square feet. Google was award a much smaller parcel
consisting of 515,000 square feet, which is inadequate to build
the company's new dream campus, which would have consisted of
four huge buildings. Google angrily protested the news, with its
real estate representative stating, "To have one building
— it’s a significant blow
.
I’m not sure how I make any of this economically viable with one
building."
STORY SOURCE
LinkedIn Foils Google’s
Ambitious Office Plans in Mountain View
May 6, 2015, 3:22 PM PDT - In February, Google unmasked a
blueprint for a massive expansion of its mothership — four
futuristic, eco-friendly campus sites, designed by star
architects “to blur,” in Google’s words, “the distinction
between our buildings and nature.” Last night, the Mountain View
city council put the kibosh on that plan.
By a 4-3 vote, the council approved just one site for Google,
stretching 515,000 square feet. It gave the bulk of available
real estate — two-thirds of 2.2 million square feet — to
LinkedIn. Silicon Valley Business Journal has the (lengthy)
deets. David Radcliffe, Google’s chief of real estate,
reportedly protested to the city council: “I’m not sure how I
make any of this economically viable with one building.”...
In stinging defeat for Google,
LinkedIn scores lion's share of real estate capacity in Mountain
View's North Bayshore
May 6, 2015, 6:51am PDT Updated: May 6, 2015, 7:30am PDT -
LinkedIn Corp. came away the clear victor late Tuesday in a
pitched battle with neighbor Google Inc. and real estate
developers for building rights in Mountain View’s North Bayshore
district. The question now: What does Google do next?
The city council handed LinkedIn about 1.4 million square
feet, the lion’s share of roughly 2.2 million square feet of
available commercial square footage for the area. Google came
away with 515,000 square feet — enough for just one piece of its
futuristic four-part campus expansion. Your user’s guide to
Mountain View’s real estate judgment day
“To have one building — it’s a significant blow,” David
Radcliffe, vice president of real estate and workplace services
for Google, told the council before the vote. Google
representatives declined to talk to me after the meeting.
The outcome is clearly a huge disappointment for Google,
which had requested essentially all of the available office
space in February under a new city land-use plan that saw way
more demand than supply. While no one expected Google to get all
of its request, the relatively small allocation clearly stung
the search giant, and a visibly upset Radcliffe openly
questioned the reduced project’s feasibility.
