Just before Thanksgiving, Google purchased the Britannia Shoreline Technology Park for $1 billion, reported the Mountain View Voice. That equates to more than $19 million per acre. The purchase from HCP Inc., is the Bay Area’s largest real estate transaction of 2018. The space is right across and larger than the company’s current Googleplex.
The new purchase consists of 12 structures ranging from one to two stories, with Google already the primary tenant of the campus. The buildings are circled by ample and inefficient parking space that developers note is ripe for development.
In 2015 Google laid out plans for a radical Mountain View campus across four sites comprised of lightweight, movable structures.
Instead of constructing immoveable concrete buildings, we’ll create lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily as we invest in new product areas. (Our self-driving car team, for example, has very different needs when it comes to office space from our Search engineers.) Large translucent canopies will cover each site, controlling the climate inside yet letting in light and air.
Other local areas where the company is interested in building mixed-use campuses include north and downtown San Jose, north San Jose, as well as Sunnyvale. Meanwhile, on the other coast, Google bought Chelsea Market for $2.4 billion earlier this year, and is rumored to be acquiring a 12-story office spanning two blocks in New York City.