Google to invest $1B

Google to invest $1B in newly unveiled New York City campus

By CRISTIANO LIMA

Google today is announcing plans to invest over $1 billion in capital improvements to create a new 1.7-million-square-foot campus in Lower Manhattan, dubbed "Google Hudson Square."

As part of the New York City expansion, Google and Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said in a blog post out this morning that the company "will have the capacity to more than double its staff" in the city over the next 10 years.

The company plans to start moving into two properties on Hudson Street by 2020, and into a newly created building on Washington Street by 2022. "Google Hudson Square will be the primary location for our New York-based Global Business Organization," Porat said.

The Google exec said the company will also "continue to deepen our commitments in STEM education, workforce development and access to technology," including by creating a program to train workers in digital skills. "We believe that as our company grows, we have a responsibility to support the communities we call home," she wrote.

The move comes as other tech giants, like Amazon and Apple, have moved to expand their presence outside the West Coast.

Amazon in November said it would split its highly anticipated second headquarters between Crystal City in Northern Virginia and Long Island City in Queens, New York. And last week Apple said it would invest $1 billion in a new campus in the Austin, Texas, metropolitan area, part of a planned U.S. expansion.