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Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

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Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#91

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

ryandrake wrote: post #88
ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some engineers most certainly do. I'd say anyone who makes over 200K can afford to live here. Can a single person making 150K a year afford to live in Santa Clara County? I'd say for sure.

So basically only a very small outlier population (those who make over $200K) can actually afford to live in the area.

I'd say (depending on an individual's exact circumstances) a high 5/low 6 figure salary is the minimum salary for a single person to be able to rent a halfway decent apartment someplace in the Bay.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#92

Post by CalRobert »

rwmj wrote: post #68
codezero wrote: post #8

Recently my rent in Sunnyvale for a nice two bedroom went up to $2900* a month from $2100 Looks like the trend will continue. *not including trash and utilities.

I don't understand why people do this. I'm paying $1000/month to own a 2 bedroom house with a huge garden. I built my own office at the end of the garden, which I can guarantee you is several times bigger and more comfortable than a work cube. I work remotely for a major US software company. (My commute is 1 minute if I'm carrying a cup of tea, slightly shorter if not). Edit: picture of the office: http://oirase.anne…

It depends on priorities. Some people prefer city life. I value access to transit and amenities more than a large living space or a garden, and I _detest_ having to drive everywhere, so I pay more to live in a city.

Different strokes for different folks, though! Your office looks nice.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#93

Post by iofj »

VikingCoder wrote: post #72

569,000 square feet... 3,000 employees. That's 190 square feet per employee. I know there's waste with hallways, bathrooms, utility closets, etc... But doesn't Google also pack their employees in like sardines? Isn't a (small) cubicle more like 80 square feet? That'd mean more than half of the space is not-cubicle, right? Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I've worked in 64 square foot cubicles...? And I had…

From another post by a Xoogler:

[1]The new building was a new-style REWS abomination with impressive public spaces to walk through on the way to totally open offices with no cube walls (as opposed to the 4' walls around the 12 person cubes in the building I was in). So there was a lot of resistance in my group..

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#94

Post by cpeterso »

yes_or_gnome wrote: post #12
cpeterso wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google already buses its employees from all corners of the Bay. So they know there is talent outside of the Peninsula.

Right. But, there's still the time cost of commuting. If you pay a premium to live in SF, then you're not going to want to commute 90-120 minutes so South Bay. Then another 90 minutes back at night. In that situation, you'd be paying a premium to live in cramped quarters, in a city with thousands of things to do, but have zero time to do any of it during the week. I meet people on Caltrain coming from Gilroy commutin…

> But, there's still the time cost of commuting. If you pay a premium to live in SF, then you're not going to want to commute 90-120 minutes so South Bay.

Yeah. That's what I meant. Google could build offices in the Gilroy or the East Bay to improve those employees lives. Companies like Uber are opening offices in Oakland, which is a pretty central location from BART and freeways.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#96

Post by brudgers »

bravura wrote: post #3

Interesting to note that this works out to roughly $700 per employee per month, over a ten month span. $250M / 10 yrs / 12 months / 3000 employees = $700 per employee-month

It is more typical (in the US) for real-estate to be amortized over 30 years. The real costs need to account for taxes and maintenance and depreciation: after 30 years the building but not the land is worth $zero and the "loss" can claimed as an expense.

To go even bigger, there's commonly a property tax abatement from local and state governments for large projects and often actual tax credits.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#98

Post by Redoubts »

Retric wrote: post #80
ZanyProgrammer wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

some engineers most certainly do. I'd say anyone who makes over 200K can afford to live here. Can a single person making 150K a year afford to live in Santa Clara County? I'd say for sure.

Your vastly overstating things. 2,700 per month was doable @85k. @150K you could afford 6K per month.

> @150K you could afford 6K per month.

But why would I do that to myself?

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#99

Post by tn13 »

codezero wrote: post #8

Recently my rent in Sunnyvale for a nice two bedroom went up to $2900* a month from $2100 Looks like the trend will continue. *not including trash and utilities.

I am totally fed up of rents in Sunnyvale. Thinking of moving to Texas now only if I get a good job.

Re: Google pays $250M for Sunnyvale offices where 3,000 could work

#100

Post by matheweis »

e12e wrote: post #19
abbasmehdi wrote: post #4

Why not East Bay or South Bay, or anywhere but the peninsula?

Isn't the real WTF why a cloud company needs to invest a quarter of a billion dollars just to inconvenience 3000 workers with a commute, and narrow their talent pool to the people they can hustle up work-permits for in the US? (Yeah, I know, Google has offices outside the US, too).

It's "only" about $85k/year, and as many others have pointed out the value of the building is not likely to go to zero (although seeing the ghost of Detroit...)

Anyhow, not saying I support it, but at the salaries Google can afford it makes sense...

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