The big picture: Silicon Valley companies are turning to New York as a second home base where skilled workers are plentiful. With a presence already in NYC, Google may be seeking to double its east coast office space.
Several tech giants already have a well established presence in New York. Microsoft holds a flagship store, Facebook has substantial office space, and Amazon is still considering New York for a secondary headquarters. Back in March, Google dropped $2.4 billion on the Chelsea Market building in Manhattan where product and business teams for web search as well as ads and sales currently reside.
Going forward, Google is now said to be in negotiations to gain access to 1.3 million square feet of office space in St. John's Terminal building located on the west side of Manhattan. It is estimated the building will be ready by 2022 and could allow Google to double its workforce located in New York. As many as 7,000 more employees could be put to work in the new space.
This year to date, Google has already hired more than 9,000 new employees, bringing its total workforce up to 94,372. Compared to one year ago, this is an increase of more than 16,000.
Second only to the financial industry, New York has a massive number of skilled technology workers. Even within finance, businesses such as Goldman Sachs are comprised of nearly 25 percent technical employees. However, given the lucrative opportunities that Wall Street has to offer, Google could face some fierce competition over skilled workers.
New York City has plenty of people that could work for Google or other tech companies that decide to move in and expand, but that is also one of the biggest problems. There are too many people. Questions have been raised as to whether significant expansion to the city is sustainable and can support hosting a tech giant's main operations.