After four years from the moment we learned about the first proposals of Google’s plan for the development of a campus in San José, it seems that the project is finally moving forward.
In fact, this very week we learned that the city council voted unanimously last Tuesday night to take advantage of the company’s ‘Downtown West’ project. Upon completion, the 32-hectare site will become one of Google’s largest office complexes yet .
Upon approval, Google thanked the city and its community “for years of commitment and true partnership,” creating “a foundation for an equitable and environmentally-focused place that represents the best of San José and Google.”
It would be, it is true, a plan that reminds many of Alphabet’s failed bid to build Sidewalk Labs in Toronto. On this occasion, we find a mixed-use development plan, which will be integrated into the city and would be partially open to the public .
In addition to the space that the offices will have, which would house around 20,000 employees, Google also plans the construction of 4,000 housing units (“affordable”), 300 hotel rooms and at least 10 parks, in addition to other amenities and areas. of leisure and entertainment, such as commercial spaces, a performance area or what the company calls “ecological viewpoints”.
In order to ensure the approval of the project, Google agreed to pay a community benefit of 200 million dollars, which will be invested in programs to prevent the displacement of its citizens and to prepare them for employment.
To prevent the project from getting legally stalled, the company reached a last minute settlement with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks after the team openly opposed the project mainly due to a lack of proposed parking at first. . Although the different modifications carried out in the plan finally led the Sharks not to sue the city or Google.
In this way, the construction of the campus would be scheduled to begin next year , although most of it could take 10 to 30 years to complete.
This approval comes at a time when some of Google’s workers are beginning to return to their offices voluntarily, after the “stoppage” motivated by the current coronavirus pandemic, especially after home confinement and the increase in telecommuting.
In fact, as early as this month of May, Sundar Pichai, current CEO of Google, stated that the company would seek to adopt a new hybrid work plan , which would allow most of the search giant’s employees to work abroad. from the office three days a week. In turn, and as part of that same plan, Pichat also indicated that Google would give workers greater freedom to move between their different offices.
