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Google Businesses

Google's 80-Acre San Jose Mega-Campus Is On Hold (cnbc.com) 30

According to CNBC, Google has halted construction of its proposed 80-acre campus in San Jose, California, after the first demolition phase. "Some sources close to the development told CNBC that the company doesn't have plans to revive the project in the near future." From the report: In June 2021, Google won approval to build an 80-acre campus, spanning 7.3 million square feet of office space, in San Jose, California, the third-largest city in the country's most populous state. The estimated economic impact: $19 billion. [...] The city of San Jose may now be paying the price. What was poised to be a mega-campus called "Downtown West," with thousands of new housing units and 15 acres of public parks, is largely a demolition zone at risk of becoming a long-term eyesore and economic zero. CNBC has learned that, as part of Google's downsizing that went into effect early this year, the company has gutted its development team for the San Jose campus.

The construction project, which was supposed to break ground before the end of 2023, has been put on pause, and no plan to restart construction has been communicated to contractors, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to non-disclosure agreements. While sources are optimistic that a campus will be built at some point and said Google representatives have expressed a commitment to it, they're concerned the project may not reach the scale promised in the original master plan.

The Mercury News, one of Silicon Valley's main newspapers, previously reported that Google was reassessing its timeline. Sources told CNBC that the company started signaling to contractors late last year that the project could face delays and changes. In February, LendLease, the lead developer for the project, laid off 67 employees, including several community engagement managers, according to filings viewed by CNBC. Senior development managers, a head of business operations and other executives were among those let go. Last month, Google also removed construction updates from its website for the project, according to internal correspondence viewed by CNBC.

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Google's 80-Acre San Jose Mega-Campus Is On Hold

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  • ... that in between the successful offloading of office rental costs on their "remote workers" and the upcoming replacement of employees by some half-baked AI, there is just no profit to be made from building out more office space.
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      ... that in between the successful offloading of office rental costs on their "remote workers"

      You say that like it's a bad thing...
      My *home* now has a detached 10x20 office building.
      Wired for 10 gig, ~50 amps of power available, nice Hue lighting, heat, AC, a desk, couch, a few large TV screens, a hot/cold water dispenser, a mini fridge for be...uh..snacks, a coffee pod gizmo, phones, several workstations, servers, a large NVR, enough UPS power to keep everything (including the coffee pot) up for ~30 minutes which is more than enough time to reach over and hit the "start" button on the keyfob for

      • Why not complete your mega office design by going all the way?

        Add a 2MW CAT diesel engine/generator combo out back with a utility-grade power transfer switch...cuz a Generac just lacks the kewl factor.

        When the power goes out the UPS systems hold up your stuff while the diesel-generator combo fires up.

        Once everything is up to speed & AC frequency is stabilized, the diesel-generator the transfer switch kicks in to run everything off the BIG CAT while others suffer without power.

        Bonus points for engineer

    • by bookwormT3 ( 8067412 ) on Friday April 21, 2023 @07:32PM (#63468622)

      It hasn't even been a week since the story https://it.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org] about Seattle workers being laid off and being offered lower wage contract positions - where they have to compete with remote workers with lower housing costs.

      Hopefully Google has realized it can open remote offices in 4-5 smaller university towns for a fraction of the cost, and pay non-Silicon-Valley wages too. CIO magazine has a list of the top 10 growing tech hubs https://www.cio.com/article/30... [cio.com] and the only city in California is Sacramento. Wasn't there last year, must be 'remote workers' and remote offices that want to be close enough to the Bay area for an occasional day trip, but outside of 'bedroom community' pricing.

  • by S_Stout ( 2725099 ) on Friday April 21, 2023 @06:06PM (#63468466)
    Congrats San Jose, you now have 80 acres for affordable housing and a nice park. Make it happen!
  • by pete6677 ( 681676 ) on Friday April 21, 2023 @06:20PM (#63468494)

    Why the fuck did Google ever think this was a good idea in the first place?

    • It was a good idea before the pandemic.
    • Re:Really dumb idea (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Friday April 21, 2023 @06:41PM (#63468542)

      Because Apple did it with its semi-mega campus. Keeping up with the Riches.
      Same reason someone buys a Bentley - it's to be seen, not to be practical.
      Both companies a few years ago had more money than they knew how to spend.

      • And Apple struggles to get people to come in. They are threatening to fire people and taking attendance. They built the dumb thing though so they are doubling down, they cant just walk away like they could with a normal leased office.

        These mega offices are for the C suite to walk around and feel important. Now that money is tight, suddenly mega offices arent such a great idea.
        • Re: Really dumb idea (Score:4, Informative)

          by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Friday April 21, 2023 @11:01PM (#63468936)

          And Apple struggles to get people to come in. They are threatening to fire people and taking attendance.

          I don't work for Apple, but I have several friends who do. They don't mention these threats. Rather, they seem to be handling going to the office three days a week matter-of-factly. Of course, they all own their own homes, so they stayed in the Bay Area, and high housing prices aren't a problem for them.

          In stark contrast to Google, Apple is continuing to acquire existing buildings and build new ones. Maybe there is a seething anger from workers forces to go to the office, but Apple definitely does not struggle to get workers to go to the office. Apple was one of the first to get their employees to go back to the office. Their parking lots were full long before other companies opened up.

        • by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Saturday April 22, 2023 @12:13AM (#63468988) Homepage Journal

          These mega offices are for the C suite to walk around and feel important. Now that money is tight, suddenly mega offices arent such a great idea.

          Many years ago, one of my former coworkers quoted another former coworker's term for that: "building a monument to yourself." Companies build overpriced buildings that are hopelessly impractical, designed by architects that care more about making their mark on the world than about functionality, and then go under.

          Case in point, the Googleplex is SGI's monument to itself. Cupertino City Center was very nearly Apple's monument to itself. And so on.

          But in this case, money really isn't tight. There's just no point in wasting money on adding more office space when mass layoffs have opened up some of the existing office space, existing offices are nowhere near full occupancy after the pandemic, and new hiring is unlikely to pick up any time soon.

          I mean, up to a point, it might make sense to build office space timed to be available right around when existing multi-year leases are ending, so that they can stop overpaying for office space, but beyond that, it would be a huge waste of money unless they plan a hiring binge to fill those offices, and I would hope that they don't.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Google is one of Satan's most impressive creations. Combining bipolar and psychopathy in to one multi-headed beast... Genius

  • Tech companies who for years have been selling cloud services & collaborative teams software had been denying employees remote work ability in one of the most ridiculous examples of hypocracy imaginable. Then.. the Pandemic. Then.. the birth of Generative AI. .. Suddenly, NOT building billion-dollar campuses on some of the most expensive land in the most expensive regions of the U.S. is starting to look like a good idea. The sheer absurdity of TECH COMPANIES building monolithic office parks in Souther
  • Until a few months ago, I got a few Google recruiter e-mails a week. This week was the first time I noticed them recruiting for remote positions.
  • Needs to be added to https://killedbygoogle.com/ [killedbygoogle.com]

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