Google adds control of Central Saint Giles' office and residential assets to its real-estate portfolio, rather than relying solely on leased or newly developed space.
Second-order effects
The acquisition strengthens Google's ability to set the long-term use and configuration of a London workplace, while concentrating more of its property exposure in owned urban assets.
Third-order effects
If Google continues pairing major office footprints with ownership, its workplace strategy shifts toward a smaller set of controlled hub properties rather than landlord-dependent expansion.
The trend: Google is increasingly treating key city offices as strategic owned infrastructure, not only as leased workplaces.
FT (£) Google will spend $1bn to buy the offices....They are “making the move even though it is also building a huge new headquarters in nearby King's Cross.” Which, one day, some day, may get finished, if they stop dithering over the design. https://www.ft.com/...
As part of our commitment to the UK's growth & success, we're excited to purchase our Central Saint Giles office in London and invest in creating a more flexible future workplace. Looking forward to having space for 10,000 Googlers across our UK sites! https://blog.google/...
This investment in jobs from Google is a big vote of confidence in the UK as a world-leading tech hub. It is also proof that this country continues to be one of the most attractive places in the world for leading firms to grow their business. https://twitter.com/...
Google has been proud to have a home in the UK for almost 20 years, investing in the people & tech talent that we see here. This is exciting news - helping us further prepare for a flexible future of work & giving us capacity for 10,000 employees 🇬🇧 https://twitter.com/...