A Tech Company Land Swap and the Pursuit of Affordable Housing in Mountain View

In what some locals call the “grand bargain,” Google and LinkedIn agreed in July to trade large amounts of Silicon Valley real estate. Involving about 3.5 million square feet of existing and potential office space, mostly in the city of Mountain View, the deal will consolidate each firm’s Silicon Valley employees into separate campuses. Previously, the companies operated across a patchwork of properties scattered between Mountain View and neighboring Sunnyvale.

In the trade, LinkedIn acquires seven Google buildings, close to 10 buildings the professional networking company already owned along the Mountain View-Sunnyvale border, as well as one million square feet of developable land. In return, Google gains over 370,000 square feet of office space along with the right to develop 1.4 million square feet in Mountain View’s North Bayshore district. LinkedIn had planned to construct a 10-building mixed-use development, with offices, a hotel, a movie theater, shops, and restaurants, on the site.