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Google is buying Chelsea Market building for over $2B

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

#161

Post by pbhjpbhj »

notspanishflu wrote: post #59
cletus wrote: post #47

NYC Xoogler here. Speaking from experience, the main office (111 8th/76 9th) is amazing. I think Google's decision to buy that years ago has totally been vindicated. I'm surprised more high cash surplus companies don't do this, just to control their destiny in a way you simply can't as a tenant (eg if you're a large tenant, each floor you rent in the same building is going to get more expensive, being a tenant limits…

Has someone there considered to install a MULTI? That would be cool. https://multi.thyssenkrupp-elevator.com/en/

Is it fully tested yet, that page says their new tower "will" (not does) provide testing? It's not the sort of thing I'd want to be an early adopter on.

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

#162

Post by vram22 »

vram22 wrote: post #142
ChuckMcM wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. Fun historical note, IBM generated cash in its early days as Google and Apple do today, it bought a lot of real estate all around the world. In the 90's when it seemed liked it was doomed, it "saved itself" by selling off big chunks of that real estate. That gave the company operating capital without having to go to the equity markets or debt markets. Given the ups and downs of tech, it seems like a…

>In the 90's when it seemed liked it was doomed, it "saved itself" by selling off big chunks of that real estate. Wonder if that was during Lou Gerstner's time as CEO at IBM. I had read his book Who says Elephants can't Dance, about what he did to turn IBM around. It was an interesting read. Don't remember if selling off some of their real estate was part of what they did, though it could have been. A review of the b…

Also just saw that the book is available on the Internet Archive in multiple formats like text, PDF and EPUB:

https://archive.org/details/WhoSaysElephantsCantDance

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

#164

Post by samstave »

aresant wrote: post #82

This is such a fascinating cycle. Large pensions & sovereign wealth funds are so desperate for yield vs. low treasuries that they have pushed income producing commercial real estate values to all time highs. As a result these fund managers are then forced to take on larger risks to cover their liabilities by making larger portfolio allocations into public techs like Google, and privates like AirBNB & Uber. And this d…

Oh, if that's your sentiment, then you will LOVE this article from 2012:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-09-30/presenting-worlds-...

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

#165

Post by samstave »

henrik_w wrote: post #160
yueq wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economic Moat -> Global Monopoly -> Positive Cashflow -> Higher Pay -> More Talents -> Create more value -> Higher Moat

maybe deeper moat :-) (but I get the point)

Here is a "higher moat"

http://www.marinabaysands.com/content/dam/singapore/marinaba...

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

#166

Post by godzillabrennus »

RestlessMind wrote: post #108
aresant wrote: post #82

This is such a fascinating cycle. Large pensions & sovereign wealth funds are so desperate for yield vs. low treasuries that they have pushed income producing commercial real estate values to all time highs. As a result these fund managers are then forced to take on larger risks to cover their liabilities by making larger portfolio allocations into public techs like Google, and privates like AirBNB & Uber. And this d…

It also means it is a great time to be able to produce value and be in control of its distribution (eg. start your startup and control the equity). People with lots of money are hungry for yields and will push your valuation higher and higher. See: cryptocurrencies (bitcoin etc) or sharing economy startups (uber, airbnb etc)

Yep. That’s the absolute truth.

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

#167

Post by samstave »

jagger27 wrote: post #64
CydeWeys wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New York Googler here. Chelsea Market is actually 19 different buildings on the same block that have merged together over time. The floor layout is truly crazy. Some floors are staggered by a full half height at the interface between buildings, there are exterior courtyards on the inside of the block that are roofed over, and buildings are of differing height. You can see it all on Google Maps; contrast with 111 8th…

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.

>That hodgepodge mess of buildings really appeals to my inner Lego-building child.

I couldnt have put it better - I got the exact same feeling from his comment. I was thinking "well that just sounds AWESOME"

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

#168

Post by majormajor »

rambleraptor wrote: post #163

At what point does it become cheaper to buy real estate in cheaper cities and use the excess money to attract talent there?

Depends on just what drives the desirability, I think.

Google is covering their bases in terms of both "suburban areas" (Mountain View) and "dense cities." So they can attract people who prefer either style of living.

If there's a significant subset that prefers "cheap" directly, then they're missing out on that group. Otherwise, it might be more cost effective to simply keep offering higher wages in the high-cost areas, if cost and desirability are roughly correlated for most people.

Where I see it breaking down personally is that the expensive areas aren't that bad for 20-something folks who want to rent anyway. Say you throw an extra ten to twenty grand a year at rent, that can be easily covered by a compensation premium. But once you start looking at moving from renter to buyer, down payment requirements make expensive areas a lot rougher. This might be fine at Google-level compensation, but there's a lot of other companies who could have a harder and harder time retaining people as they age.

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

#169

Post by jsky_goog »

hueving wrote: post #118
Xorlev wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lived and worked in Colorado my whole life, joined Google Boulder about 8 months ago. Spent a ton of time in Boulder before that; my wife is from Boulder proper. Honestly? Google is barely a speck in the whirlwind of changes that Boulder is undergoing. Tech is a huge part of it, but you can't throw that entirely at Google's feet. There's been Silicon Valley expats and tons of other folks moving to Boulder for ye…

>I'd like to know what we're doing to destroy communities and how we can prevent that. Stop moving into small cities with workers paid significantly above the average of the existing residents. Restaurants open that they can't afford, the limited housing stock gets bid up quickly, good schools get overcrowded, etc. It's not a pleasant answer, but realistically that's ultimately what upsets a good chunk of the people…

I understand the concern but as someone who grew up in Boulder, and now works at Google Boulder I feel like people are giving off this incorrect impression of Boulder. It's a small town (~120k people w/ students) but it was never a particularly affordable place. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot that can be done to shield a desirable small town from becoming more expensive as more people become aware of it's existence. You can keep Boulder small with minimal development and get the skyrocketing housing prices or you can attempt to remedy this by building significantly more housing. For a long time now it's been evident that the city council has chosen the first option.

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

#170

Post by samstave »

ionforce wrote: post #98
zephraph wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yeah, I want more info on what working for Food Network is like as well...

Please

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