Earlier this year, Google purchased Chelsea Market for $2.4 billion to expand its presence in New York City. A new report today pegs another real estate deal in the works that could create office space for 8,500 more Googlers in the Big Apple.
A report last month revealed that Google was close to purchasing the Chelsea Market building in Midtown Manhattan for more office space. Today, Google confirmed the $2.4 billion purchase of the mixed use space already home to several other companies, shops, and restaurants.
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Google’s Eric Schmidt was recently featured in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett giving a rare behind-the-scenes look at Google’s second largest World offices in downtown Manhattan. While giving a tour and an exclusive interview, Schmidt explained that one of Google’s strengths is their “lack of direction.”
Schmidt also described the building that holds about 3,000 employees, and he said its staff is split “half and half” into sales/marketing and high quality engineering. He called the office the “world’s best engineering center.” Viewers got a glimpse at the desks of programmers, including some of the Google Docs team, cafeterias, hallways with fake subway grates, meat locker conference rooms, and “huddle rooms” designed to look like New York City apartments.
Viewers also learned some of Schmidt’s views on North Korea, and China’s “horrendous censorship laws”. When asked whether or not “the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs” would be born in China or the United States, Schmidt responded: