7 ms·
Google Buying Manhattan Office Building for $1.9 Billion
- siculars 16y agoReal-estate postering aside, this deal does not signify "a rebounding real estate market..." It is no coincidence that Google's East Coast offices are located in this specific building. The building happens to be a major internet peering point for the entire NYC region. So no, I do not see a major rush to buy entire city block sized buildings unless there are other enormous, industrial grade, internet peering hubs floating around NYC. (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/smallbusiness/01hotel.html?pagewanted=print http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/smallbusiness/01h...) Also, the NYC tech scene is on fire, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1957538 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1957538. (cross post from my own submitted article)
- nathanwdavis 16y agoWhat is the proximity of this building to Wall Street? I wonder if they are looking to get a foot into the high frequency trading business in some way.
- Hovertruck 16y agoIt's roughly 3 miles away, 15-20 minutes.
- commiebob 16y agoIt's not close to Wall street. This building is where their NYC offices were already located, by buying it, it makes it easy to expand into vacant office space. And, as stated in the article, about 25% of the building is data center space, it is one of the largest carrier hotels in NYC.
- Terretta 16y agoClose is relative. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Wall+Street,+New+York,+NY&daddr=111+8th+Avenue,+New+York,+NY&hl=en&geocode=FVwcbQIdAreW-ynxKrREPlrCiTEa7wMmAK6YDw%3BFY6mbQIdntGW-yl9ph9gvlnCiTHFKUdpTl5vcA&mra=ls&sll=40.740494,-74.002018&sspn=0.008235,0.012832&g=111+8th+Avenue,+New+York,+NY&ie=UTF8&ll=40.763381,-73.942451&spn=0.263417,0.410614&z=12 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Wal... That's closer in "speed of light" to Wall St than the Newark / Jersey City colos, but computer trading tends to be in Jersey so that's where you'd go if wire speed is your goal. Try 165 Halsey St in Newark. Here's a map of who is already on each floor. Morgan Stanley has the entire 2nd floor: http://www.165halsey.com/ourbldg_bldgarea.asp http://www.165halsey.com/ourbldg_bldgarea.asp
- cynicalkane 16y agoHigh frequency trading is generally done by colocating servers at the exchange data centers, or another data center with a very low latency link to the exchange's. (The link must be necessarily very short due to the finite speed of light.) You don't need to buy a whole building to do this, and in fact, buying a whole building is unlikely to help.
- jkent 16y agoI think a lot of the stock exchanges have their data centres in Jersey now, iirc?
- stewiecat 16y agoYup, in Mahwah area, up Route 17 near the NY border. The NYSE built a massive data center there specifically for colocation of high frequency trading operations, even going so far as ensuring each customers switch runs are the same length. It was on 60:Minutes a while ago.
- tlrobinson 16y agoThis? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/07/60minutes/main6936075.shtml http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/07/60minutes/main6936...
- chrisaycock 16y agoThe main NJ data centers for exchanges include Secaucus (Equinix NY4), Weehawken (Savvis), Clifton (Telx), and now Mahwah. All of the major stock exchanges and some of the options exchanges are in one of these data centers. If I've left any out, please feel free to add as a comment.
- hugh3 16y agoAt first I thought it looked like an incredibly dumpy building for $1.9 billion. Then I read that it's actually the entire city block that they're buying. Am I correct in thinking that New York City planning regulations would make it damn near impossible to tear down that dumpy-looking building and build a shiny new one?
- rdl 16y agoThere is absolutely way they would disrupt operations at one of the top five carrier hotels in the world because you think it looks dumpy.
- icegreentea 16y agoRegulations aside, you would be mad to tear this thing down. Relocating all the DCs (and I'm guessing exchanges) in there would be ridiculous. And... 'dumpy' isn't exactly the right word for this building. Another article (from the same site! with the same paragraphs!) shows how f'ing huge this building is. http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/09/14/111-8th-avenue-carrier-hotel-is-for-sale/ http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/09/14/111-8... Go to the bottom.
- kessler 16y agoThat dumpy looking building to you is actually pretty nice looking on the outside and inside in person. It's also the third largest building by square footage in Manhattan, the main carrier hotel in the city for providers like Realty Trust, Equinix, Telx and home to a ton of high profile companies like Nike, Deutsch, Armani, Spotify among others.
- look_lookatme 16y agoDumpy compared to what? I think it's a fine example of classic New York Art Deco.
- SkyMarshal 16y agoKids these days. Not made of souless cinderblocks and drywall = dumpy to them.
- tricky 16y ago"The offering is being closely watched as a barometer of the Manhattan real estate market." Does anyone know the Manhattan real estate market? is 1.9 B a steal?
- jgv 16y agoThis is a great sign of growth for tech in NYC. It's a beautiful building and I hope it gives Google a chance to expand their operations in the city. Here's the website for the building if anyone is interested: http://www.111eighth.com http://www.111eighth.com
- adolfoabegg 16y agoOn Google Maps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=111+8th+Avenue,+New+York,+NY,+United+States&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.956457,70.927734&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=111+8th+Ave,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+York+10011&ll=40.74138,-74.003005&spn=0.002219,0.004329&t=h&z=18 http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- Terretta 16y agoNot sure why this headline says "Office Building". Calling this an office building is like calling the Internet tubes. It's a colo hotel, with floors an entire block in size that are nothing but vast datacenter spaces. Here's the cable conduit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78888924@N00/3808798230/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/78888924@N00/3808798230/ Here's Google's "office". Each of the colos fills this kind of space with cabinets or racks: http://www.sawagoodidea.com/wp-content/uploads/2005_11_google8.jpg http://www.sawagoodidea.com/wp-content/uploads/2005_11_googl... If you walk up or down 15th or 16th street and look at the windows, you'll see which floors are datacenter space because their windows are blocked out. For example: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=111+8th+ave&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=&hnear=111+8th+Ave,+Brooklyn,+Kings,+New+York+10011&ll=40.741226,-74.003928&spn=0.016469,0.025663&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.741315,-74.004122&panoid=2aW4BatIxITsXHVFTWfZ8A&cbp=12,11.94,,0,-48.19 http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=111+8th+ave&... // We've been colo'd at 111 8th for a decade.
- brown9-2 16y agoEh? Google has offices - with people, and cubes, and dining in it - in at least four floors of that building. They have about 2000 employees in this building. Here are a lot more pictures of that space: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Inside-Googles-Manhattan-Office http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Inside-Googles-Manha... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/fashion/31google.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/fashion/31google.html http://picasaweb.google.com/photos.jobs/NewYorkOfficePhotos http://picasaweb.google.com/photos.jobs/NewYorkOfficePhotos (linked from http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/new-york/ http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/uslocations/new-york/) There are also a handful of other companies - such as barnesandnoble.com - with office space in this building. Some of the floors might be datacenter space, but a huge amount of it is also people-office space.
- Terretta 16y agoThere are a number of other buildings with office space in Manhattan. Not many have multiple datacenter floors covering a city block. One of these characteristics is more relevant to Google than the other. // As an aside, it's curious that 60 Hudson St looks so much like one end of 111 8th Ave.
- cies 16y agowho thinks this leads in google's extension of its product line with financial product that are "note evil"? i feel financial products are essentially "information product" to begin with.
- brown9-2 16y agoI think this would be a mistaken assumption to make; they already have about 2000 employees in this location and a pretty strong presence. I think this transaction just turns them from leasers into owners.
- qeorge 16y agoBeautiful building, had lunch with a friend there. IIRC it also housed DoubleClick before the merger, so "moving in" was a matter of Google taking over their floor(s).
- lkrubner 16y agoI just got a tour of the offices last week. For those of you who do not know, this is mostly the DoubleClick crew. A lot of the people working there originally worked for DoubleClick and then became part of Google when Google bought DoubleClick. This is also how Google ended up with a New York office. To the commenter who said this is a great sign for the New York tech scene, I guess I agree, but this needs to be seen as a rebound from a low point. After all, there was a point back in the 90s when DoubleClick seemed a dominant power, and at that time New York seemed like the natural center of the advertising industry, and it seemed like New York's dominance of advertising would last forever -- all of which later was called in question. The office has a lot of the amenities that I guess you would associate with a modern high tech company -- there is a game room with pool tables and foos ball and ping pong, there is some nice design elements, there is a little museum of old computers in one of the hallways, people ride down the hallways on scoot rides, there are bunch of little coffee shops where everything is free, and there is a room you can go and get a massage. For all that, though, I agree with the commenter who said the place is a little dumpy. I'm surprised this place is worth $1.9 billion - I'm always a little surprised at how expensive New York real estate is.
- BarkMore 16y agoMinor correction: Google opened an the office in NY three or four years before the DoubleClick acquisition. Google was already in the building at the time of the acquisition.
- wan23 16y agoNot only that, but Google was already using 4x the amount of office space in the building that DoubleClick was at the time of the acquisition.
- asnyder 16y agoI remember reading that the building sits on top of one of the main fiber optic junctions, clearly making it a bit more valuable. I was able to find an article that references this http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/27/google-to-play-daniel-plainview-tap-into-nycs-high-traffic-oil-field/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/27/google-to-play-daniel-pl....
- nostromo 16y agoFun fact from the NYTimes article: this building has more square footage than the Empire State Building. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03building.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03building.html?_...