Google is understood to be preparing to bring its office building at Central St Giles to market, according to several sources.
The building, bought for about £762.5 million in 2022, is close to London's Tottenham Court Road station.
CBRE is understood to be advising Google on the sales process, which is expected to be structured as a sale-and-leaseback as the group prepares to ultimately move staff to its 1 million-square-foot under-construction campus at King's Cross Central.
Market sources expect the value-add campus opportunity to fetch up to £700 million.
CoStar News revealed in November 2021 that the United States search engine giant had revived talks to buy the office and residential complex in Holborn where it occupies around 160,000 square feet.
The tech giant extended its lease at the Central St Giles development in 2020 when it was first linked to talks to buy the landmark development, then co-owned by Legal & General Investment Management and Mitsubishi Estate.
Google occupies around 40% of the development close to Covent Garden.
The Central Saint Giles Partnership, the joint venture between L&G and Mitsubishi Estate that funded the construction of the development, instructed JLL in 2018 to prepare the WC2 campus for sale for £700 million.
Built at a cost of £450 million and completed in 2010, Central Saint Giles is recognisable by its yellow, orange, green and red ceramic tiles and was Italian architect Renzo Piano’s first work in the UK.
The development, finished in April 2010, provides 408,000 square feet of office floor space. It also has over 100 homes, 50% of which are affordable, and 25,000 square feet of retail and restaurant units around a new public piazza.
The project delivered significant public realm through new pedestrian routes and a public space at Princes Circus and was a focal point of the regeneration of the St Giles area.
The office element was fully let to Google, NBC Universal, WPP Group and Specific Media.
CBRE declined to comment. Google did not respond to a request for comment.