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Companies on the west coast of the United States attack New York, change the face of neighborhoods and change their identity. Google announced Monday (17) that it was planning to build a $ 1 billion campus just south of the West Village. . The incursion of the Internet company into one of Manhattan's most famous neighborhoods will allow it to become one of the city's largest office space occupants and allow it to double its workforce in the region, reaching more than 14,000 people in the next 10 years. .
Google's announcement comes as a result of last month's decision by Amazon to build a new headquarters in Queens that can accommodate up to 25,000 workers. Facebook, LinkedIn and Uber have also recently announced the expansion of their New York site, primarily driven by talent hunting.
Each of these companies will create hundreds or thousands of high-paying jobs and rent hundreds of thousands of square feet.
"Information technology has supplanted law, medicine, and finance," said Mitchell Moss, a professor of urban planning at New York University, who is doing research on the subject. economy of the city.
The new Google campus in Hudson Square, formerly an industrial district just south of the West Village, reinforces the company's presence in the West Side of Manhattan and accelerates change in the area. This would reflect how Google has transformed the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan, where it has operated an office since 2006.
The company acquired the Chelsea market for $ 2.4 billion a few months ago and an adjacent building in 2010, and rents out of other offices in the area, about 20 minutes walk from its new campus.
The centerpiece of this 158,000-square-foot campus will be the St. John's Terminal, located near the Holland Tunnel, in Washington Street. Google also plans to occupy spaces in two neighboring buildings located on Hudson Street. In total, the company will expand its presence in Manhattan by approximately 30% and occupy 627,000 square feet.
"New York City continues to be an excellent source of diverse and world-clbad talent," said Ruth Porat. , Google's vice president of finance, said Monday in a statement. "That's what brought Google into the city in 2000 and that's what keeps us here."
The transformation of New York into a technological hub began after the 2008 crisis, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to focus on the sector. as an engine of future growth.
His government is seeking to improve the technological empowerment of the local workforce, a campaign that has led Cornell University and its partner, the Technion (Institute of Technology of Canada). Israel), to build a science campus. applied and engineering on Roosevelt Island. Technology initiatives – new courses, buildings and research institutes – have also been promoted by Columbia, New York and New York City Universities.
Google arrived in New York after opening an advertising office in 2000. He added a team of engineers to his staff in the city in 2003 and has been steadily reinforcing his presence ever since.
Other major technology companies quickly followed their example. Amazon and Facebook each have more than 2,000 employees in New York and Apple and Salesforce have more than 1,000 employees each
LinkedIn has a large office located at the Empire Estate Building and IBM has chosen New York to Host Watson's Watson artificial intelligence division and its cloud computing division.
Since 2009, the total number of jobs in the areas of technology and advertising has increased by 31% in New York, reaching 360,600 jobs. The number of jobs in financial services grew by 12%, reaching 475,500 jobs over the same period, according to an badysis of federal data conducted by Ken McCarthy, chief economist at Cushman & Wakefield Real Estate [19659002]
In contrast, the health and education sectors employ about one million people in New York, and the housing sector employs 465,800 people, according to his badysis.
According to his badysis, McCarthy notes the federal data.
But the traditional activities of the New York economy – finance, retail and consulting – have also created thousands of technological jobs
Banks JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are employing thousands of technology professionals, including many specialists in new fields such as computer, blockchain and machine learning.
The Google expansion in Manhattan contrasts with Amazon's Long Island City, where the company's move to settle in this former Queens industrial region has provoked an intense local debate.
The leaders of Ama Zon, who had promised little benefit in terms of neighborhood in return for the $ 3 billion in state and municipal incentives that she would receive, faces bitter protests and questioning at a hearing in the New York City legislature a week ago.
Google is developing quietly and does not ask for public subsidies. "We have been growing steadily for 18 years without boasting or asking for government help," said William Floyd, Google's vice president of foreign affairs in New York this month. "We grew up thanks to our hard work."
But Google has also been criticized in New York. The owners of some Chelsea restaurants have complained about the loss of potential customers as the company serves free meals in their offices. (The San Francisco authorities have debated the ban on the creation of cafeterias offering free food to city businesses.)
And there are Manhattan residents who are worried about the Possible expansion of Google and other businesses in historic districts. "What worries me is that Google's concentration in this area will put even more pressure on office development, especially in the technology sector, in adjacent neighborhoods such as Village and East Village. where we are already seeing this phenomenon, "he said. Andrew Berman, executive director of the Society for the Historic Preservation of Greenwich Village
Berman said that he was not opposed to Google's expansion to Hudson Square, which was turned into a shopping district over the last decade into a large number of converted factories and lofts. in offices housing more than a thousand businesses, including many technologies, advertising and media.
50,000 people work in the neighborhood and thousands of others chose housing after a zoning change in 2013 that allowed the realization of residential projects in the area.
But Berman said the growing demand for office space has resulted in the demolition of historic buildings, expelled from former commercial and residential tenants, and resulting in modern office towers that do not fit with other buildings in those neighborhoods. .
Paulo Migliacci
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