Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B • Hacker News Board

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#91

Post by huac » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 6:40 PM UTC

SFLemonade wrote: post #77

Between this $2B deal and the $5B Apple Park deal, I start to wonder how companies are justifying these purchases as remote and distributed work becomes more feasible. They're probably focused on the fact that productivity is still higher in co-located settings and the best talent pools are in major metro areas. But what if, instead, they invested $500M in remote work research and $500M in building a remote work infr…

Google has experimented with that idea in London: https://www.campus.co/london/en. Free space with wifi and coffee and obviously nice furniture. They use the event space to hold tech talks and the like -- I wonder if it's worked out as more than just a brand investment.

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#92

Post by CydeWeys » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 6:49 PM UTC

DogOnTheWeb wrote: post #89

jagger27 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they're buying the entire block? $2 billion seems cheap all of a sudden. That hodgepodge mess of buildings really appeals to my inner Lego-building child.

The layout is like none other. You'll walk down a spiral stairway, through some cubes, turn the corner to a ramp, more cubes, more narrow hallways and ramps.

And a lot of the space has these beautiful antique wooden floors and the ceilings are held up gigantic wooden columns and beams. Most of the buildings on the site are over a century old and predate the modern construction methods that use reinforced concrete and steel I-beams.

Contrast with 111 8th Ave, which was built contemporaneously with the Empire State Building (and in the same aesthetic). It uses reinforced concrete and steel I-beam construction throughout. The brick you see from the outside is just an aesthetic facade; this is a solid building.

Oh, and there's two skybridges -- one that goes nowhere, and one that goes across 10th Ave to our space in that building.

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#93

Post by geofft » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 6:51 PM UTC

blackguardx wrote: post #78

geofft wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real answer is for cities to be built up so much that even a Google-sized company is a drop in the bucket. Google NYC right now is about one city block (111 8th), expanding to two. That's a tiny part of Manhattan, which isn't even all of NYC. My old church is located under the old Citigroup Center skyscraper at 601 Lexington, which is also an entire block; Citigroup used to have both that building and the block a…

Boulder has a population of ~100,000. I don't oppose the Google office, but their workforce will grow to represent 1-2% of the city's populace. That isn't a "drop in the bucket."

Sure - I'm advocating that more cities should grow to the point that it is a drop in the bucket, by inviting not only Google but other companies and not treating any of them as special.

Or, sure, they can decide that being a 100K-person town is what they want their city to be, and use zoning to actively resist any single employer having over 1K people in the town. But this isn't a Google-specific problem, and if you try to address it with Google-specific solutions (either "Take special measures to invite Google because they'll bring in high-paying jobs" or "Take special measures to exclude Google because they'll destroy your city"), you'll be in trouble when some other, possibly non-tech, employer comes along in the future.

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#94

Post by DogOnTheWeb » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 6:58 PM UTC

CydeWeys wrote: post #92

DogOnTheWeb wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The layout is like none other. You'll walk down a spiral stairway, through some cubes, turn the corner to a ramp, more cubes, more narrow hallways and ramps.

And a lot of the space has these beautiful antique wooden floors and the ceilings are held up gigantic wooden columns and beams. Most of the buildings on the site are over a century old and predate the modern construction methods that use reinforced concrete and steel I-beams. Contrast with 111 8th Ave, which was built contemporaneously with the Empire State Building (and in the same aesthetic). It uses reinforced co…

And who can forget the offices were once ovens for Nabisco.

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#95

Post by airstrike » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 7:00 PM UTC

ucaetano wrote: post #66

Wow, they really got a good deal on the 111 Eighth Avenue, they bought it in 2010 by $610/sqft, and now it is probably worth the same as the Chelsea Market, $1600/sqft, a 160% return on the investment.

Annually that was "only" 13% which is still great but not 160%-great.

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#96

Post by ionforce » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 7:04 PM UTC

djtriptych wrote: post #19

Touche wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other office occupants though, and it sounds like Google's going to squeeze them out. So the food offerings might stay, but it's going to begin to feel like a Google cafeteria.

Google employees already eat for free at 5-6 internal restaurants within the Google office space. I used to work at Google NYC and would occasionally eat at a nice Thai spot in Chelsea Market but most of the time I'd just take the free lunch.

> I used to work at Google NYC

Where do you work now?

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#97

Post by RangerScience » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 7:04 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #41

RangerScience wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> existing citizens who own and live in these locations take priority Yep, wealthy land owners, clearly the group that needs protecting. Actually, can anyone name a major US city where most of the growth came from itself, rather than an influx?

> Yep, wealthy land owners, clearly the group that needs protecting. Wealthy land owners = citizens who have most of their personal wealth/retirements savings tied up in the equity of their home that has slowly appreciated over years or decades. How terribly different than tech companies and employees using copyright (source code) and vast quantities of data to reap enormous returns and salaries (respectively). This…

"wealthy landowners" is also a key phrase; they're the first (and for awhile, the only) people with a vote in democracies.

I'm not disagreeing that this is New Boss vs Old Boss. I'm disagreeing that Old Boss needs empowerment.

An interesting example is comparing Venice, CA to the "classic" gentrification: In Venice, most of the people responsible for the local culture (aka, why tech wants to be here) also own their homes; thus, as the property values rose dramatically, they benefitted. Contrast with "typical" gentrification, which just screws renters.

Hence why I'm on you about landowners versus "locals". There's a difference, and it's significant.

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#98

Post by ionforce » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 7:04 PM UTC

zephraph wrote: post #51

djtriptych wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google employees already eat for free at 5-6 internal restaurants within the Google office space. I used to work at Google NYC and would occasionally eat at a nice Thai spot in Chelsea Market but most of the time I'd just take the free lunch.

Unfortunately that Thai place closed due to the rising cost of rent in the building. I work in the Food Network office in CM. For now, heh.

> I work in the Food Network office in CM.

Doing something software/tech related?

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#99

Post by ionforce » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 7:05 PM UTC

zohaibr wrote: post #18

Touche wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are other office occupants though, and it sounds like Google's going to squeeze them out. So the food offerings might stay, but it's going to begin to feel like a Google cafeteria.

MLB occupies some space. But they were moving to midtown in 2019 but their lease is until 2022. Bamtech (recently acquired by Disney is there). I don't know what's going to happen for us. We'll find out.

> I don't know what's going to happen for us.

Who is us?

Re: Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

#100

Post by hueving » Thu, Feb 08, 2018, 7:08 PM UTC

finkin1 wrote: post #9

fancyfacebook wrote: post #2

Google has largely ruined Boulder, CO after building a huge new sprawling thing and effectively dictating to locals and politicians exactly how they want the neighborhood and city to be structured going forward. Everyone who isn't a googler hates them and wishes we hadn't allowed that, much less given them massive amounts of corporate welfare. Resist googlers if you can, they destroy communities.

I live in Boulder and don't share this sentiment whatsoever. Google already has a large campus here and they're expanding into an area that frankly needed to be renovated anyway. Their entire new + old complex is supposed to house ~2,000 employees. If adding 1.5k employees and a new building is "largely ruining Boulder" in your eyes you should see a doctor.

>If adding 1.5k employees and a new building is "largely ruining Boulder" in your eyes you should see a doctor.

Put some effort into understanding perspectives before resorting to derision. Bringing thousands of highly paid employees into a smaller city is often not good for many who already lives there unless they own property. The majority of the new jobs will not go to existing residents, rents will increase, restaurants will get more expensive, traffic will get worse, and everything will get more crowded.

For rich city-dwellers, the above might sound like nothing, but for people who seek smaller cities it will suck because it quickly erodes the character of the city.