According to reports, Google parent company Alphabet is pulling back on two massive land acquisition deals amidst the economic uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. A development approval setback will also slow the company's expansion.
"Google’s parent company, among the San Francisco Bay Area’s largest property owners, is starting to pull back from its decadelong land grab," according to a paywalled article by Cory Weinberg, who reported the scoop originally.
More details can be found in a follow up article by Grace Hase. Alphabet has halted negotiations on the purchase of 2 million square feet in San Francisco, including more than 1.5 million square foot at the Brookfield Properties’ Pier 70 project. "Last December, the San Francisco Business Times reported that the Mountain View-based corporation was in talks to lease the project," according to Hase.
Alphabet's slowed pace of land acquisition is also evident in the South Bay Area, according to Hase. "Forty miles south in Mountain View, Google has also reportedly ended a verbal agreement to buy a slew of office buildings owned by NortonLifeLock—a software company previously known as Symantec."
On tangential news, Maggie Angst reported on April 14 that "San Jose officials have announced that they have delayed the city council’s consideration of Google’s Downtown West transit village project, and the community benefits package that will accompany it, by several months — from the end of 2020 to early to mid-2021."
Read the full story: Google Reportedly Halts Negotiations for 2 Million Square Feet of Bay Area Real Estate
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