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SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon may not be the only technology giant to consider a big expansion in New York.
Google is in talks to move into a planned 1.3 million square foot office complex in the St John's Terminal building on the West Side of Manhattan, according to a person familiar with the company's plans but not having the right to speak publicly about it.
The property, which is expected to be completed in 2022, would allow the internet giant to significantly increase its presence in the city. Google employs about 7,000 people in New York and a space of this size could more than double its local workforce.
The potential expansion, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, follows the news that Amazon appears to be about to build a head office in the city. According to two people informed of the negotiations, Amazon is about to name Long Island City, a rapidly growing area on the western outskirts of Queens, as one of two sites that can accommodate up to 50,000 employees.
Amazon's so-called HQ2 effort, looking for a second headquarters outside of Seattle, has been going on for about a year. Many were surprised when it was learned last week that the ecommerce company could end up with two new large offices instead of one. The other would be in northern Virginia, outside of Washington.
The potential arrival of Amazon in Long Island City hopes that New York will one day compete with Silicon Valley as a technology center. He also raised concerns as to whether the the local infrastructure could support such a rapid expansion.
Google opened its first office in New York 18 years ago, but the company's ever-growing workforce has spurred demand for larger offices and more staff in the city.
In March, Google spent $ 2.4 billion on the purchase of the Chelsea Market building in Manhattan, where the company had set up some of its offices in New York. The Chelsea office is Google's main workplace in the city. It hosts product and business teams for web search, ads, and sales. A Google spokesperson also announced plans to add an additional 320,000 square feet through the redevelopment of Pier 57.
The search for local real estate is part of a general US expansion of Alphabet, Google's parent company. Last month, Alphabet announced that it had hired 9,000 employees in the United States this year, bringing its total to 94,372 from September. This was an increase of more than 16,000 from the previous year.
The St. John's Terminal is being developed on Hudson Square by Oxford Properties, a Toronto-based developer. The 12-storey building will incorporate a former freight terminal for the High Line and present rail beds as a central element of the design.
As technology companies grow in New York, they risk competing with Wall Street for their engineering talent.
New York has always had an important technology industry, although it has been overtaken by the financial industry. For years, the city has ranked second or third among the US communities in total venture capital investment in technology – with Silicon Valley and its environs far far ahead.
New York's technological workforce is also one of the largest in the country, with many computer engineers working on the huge data systems that feed large financial institutions. For example, about 25% of Goldman Sachs' workforce is dedicated to technology tasks, according to the reports.
Facebook also has a large office in New York, like many other companies in Silicon Valley. One of Microsoft's most important research labs is in the city. And some of the industry's most advanced research into complex, high-speed computing systems is done in New York City, largely through working with the big banks.
But one thing the city has not been able to claim for a long time is a technology center in its own right. The closest home of a technology heavyweight is Armonk, in the state of NY, about 40 miles away, where IBM is based. (IBM also has main offices in Manhattan.)
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