Google buys New York office building

Google said Wednesday that it had purchased an 18-story building in New York to house its more than 2,000-strong workforce in the city.

Google did not announce a purchase price for the building at 111 Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood but the New York Post put the cost at 1.77 billion dollars.

The newspaper said the final price, including transfer taxes and assorted other fees, could be 1.9 billion dollars.

"Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000 -- a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales 'team,'" said David Radcliffe, Google's vice president for real estate and workplace services.

"Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering -- and we're hiring across the board," Radcliffe said in a blog post.

"Today, we're pleased to announce that we've closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue," he added.

"We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city," he said

According to the Post, the Art Deco building has "numerous back-up generators, lots of electrical power, antennas, fiber optics and high-tech facilities available to tenants."

(c) 2010 AFP