Housing
The Quiet Rise of the Downtown Tech Campus
While the world focuses on the battle for Amazon HQ2, the other tech giants are consolidating their own urban fiefdoms.
Last week, it was revealed that Google will buy the Chelsea Market building in Manhattan, across the street from its main offices in the old Port Authority building, for as much as $2.5 billion. The mind-boggling sales price would make this the second-most expensive real estate deal in New York City history, and it demonstrates the lengths to which Google is willing to go to consolidate its burgeoning presence in Chelsea.
The move is also indicative of a far wider trend: While all eyes have been trained on Amazon’s salacious HQ2 search, Google and its peers have been quietly transforming many urban neighborhoods into de-facto tech campuses.