Google Inc. (NASDAQ:
GOOG) disclosed in a recent securities filing that it plans to buy its eight-building headquarters complex in Mountain View, CA for $319 million. The price values the buildings, which total 978,066 square feet and which are located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway and 1200-1500 Crittenden Lane, at just over $326 per square foot.
Google is buying its headquarters, known throughout Silicon Valley as the Googleplex, from a series of four entities believed to be affiliated with Goldman Sachs under the registered corporate name of INV Tax Group. Prior to making the purchase offer, Google had expanded into the space, subleasing some buildings from Silicon Graphics Inc., a former high-flying maker of powerful computers that went bankrupt. As a result of SGI's bankruptcy, Google will need bankruptcy court approval to acquire the property.
Google will also need approval from the city of Mountain View, which owns the land and leased it to the building owners. Google agreed to take over the lease payments to the city as part of the purchase agreement.
If it gains approvals from both the bankruptcy court and the city, Google expects to close on the property by the end of this month. The firm put $10 million into escrow as part of the purchase agreement.
Last year, Google also acquired rights to develop a 1 million-square-foot campus by entering into a "partnership" with NASA involving land at the 2,000-acre NASA Ames Research Center. As part of the agreement, Google agreed to collaborate with the space agency on supercomputing issues.
The NASA facility is located on the former Moffett Field air station near Mountain View that was turned over to NASA after the military pulled out in the 1990s.
Google's latest real estate venture comes at a time when the Internet search engine is expanding by leaps and bounds, hiring on average 10 people per day. According to technology experts, Google harbors ambitions beyond online searching and could pose a threat to Microsoft Corp. for supremacy among personal computer users.