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Google Bay View campus on the NASA Ames Research Center complex near the corner of Wright Avenue and Lomax Lane. Google will "double down" on California by investing more than $1 billion in properties and development projects statewide, including several in the Bay Area.
Christopher McAnneny / Heatherwick Studio
Google Bay View campus on the NASA Ames Research Center complex near the corner of Wright Avenue and Lomax Lane. Google will “double down” on California by investing more than $1 billion in properties and development projects statewide, including several in the Bay Area.
George Avalos, business reporter, San Jose Mercury News, for his Wordpress profile. (Michael Malone/Bay Area News Group)
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MOUNTAIN VIEW — Google will “double down” on California by investing more than $1 billion in properties and development projects statewide, including two that are already  underway in the Bay Area, the search giant said Thursday.

“A lasting economic recovery will come from local communities, and the people and small businesses that give them life,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google and its owner, tech titan Alphabet. “Google wants to be a part of that recovery.”

Mountain View-based Google will embark this year on that recovery endeavor with wide-ranging investments around the country and in California.

Nationwide, the tech titan intends to invest more than $7 billion and create at least 10,000 new Google jobs, the company said. Google is opening office buildings in Virginia, Texas, Minnesota, and Oregon; is expanding its office staff in New York City; and is upgrading its campuses in Chicago, Seattle, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

At the end of 2020, Alphabet employed 135,300 people worldwide, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Google Charleston East campus, 2000 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View. // Christopher McAnneny / Heatherwick Studio

In the Bay Area, Google is planning to include at least four major development projects in the billion-dollar property enterprise:

— Bay View, a Google campus in Mountain View at the NASA Ames Research Center. The project will total 1.1 million square feet and will sprout at the corner of Lomax Lane and Wright Avenue.

— Charleston East, a Google campus in Mountain View at 2000 N. Shoreline Blvd. This project will be 595,000 square feet in size.

— 1265 Borregas Ave. in Sunnyvale, a Google office building that would total 182,500 square feet. The building will include mass timber materials that are being used in new methods of construction.

— A San Francisco development effort that is described as an ongoing capital project.

1265 Borregas Ave. in Sunnyvale, a five-story office building owned by Google, concept. // Michael Green Architecture

Two of the four projects in the Bay Area, the Bay View and Charleston East campuses, are existing developments. They were included in the total because Google intends to complete them, which then creates a location for more jobs. The Sunnyvale project on Borregas is brand new.

Google intends to complete the construction of the two campuses in Mountain View this year. The Sunnyvale office building is scheduled to begin construction in 2021.

“Companies like Google continue to invest heavily in our state, which will help us recover faster and come back stronger than before,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

This is not the first time Google has invested in commerical real estate in an economic downturn.  At the end of the Great Recession, Google kicked off wide-ranging purchases of properties in the Bay Area and that expansion continued nearly unbroken until the pandemic. The expansion included two South Bay property purchases for $1 billion each, as well as countless leases and numerous development proposals.

The last major expansion effort by Google — along with growth by other big tech companies — and was one of the heralds of the economic and employment boom in the Bay Area.

The push by Google to widen its footprint in California offers a welcome contrast to high-profile corporate defections from the state. Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Charles Schwab are among the companies that have decided to shift their headquarters out of the Bay Area.

“As we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, I welcome not only Google’s creation of good jobs but also this new effort by Google to invest in our state’s recovery,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), whose district includes parts of Santa Clara County.

And it’s not just office buildings that Google is developing or supporting financially in the Bay Area and elsewhere.

Google also is preparing a massive development in downtown San Jose called Downtown West that doesn’t count towards the billion dollars that the company is spending this year in California.

Downtown West is a transit-oriented neighborhood of office buildings, houses, shops, restaurants, entertainment hubs, and hotel facilities that Google intends to develop near the Diridon train station and SAP Center in downtown San Jose. Thousands of homes are expected to sprout within the company’s Downtown West footprint.

Google has submitted proposals for mixed-use projects in Mountain View’s East Whisman and North Bayshore district. Together, these projects would bring thousands of homes to sites that Google owns.

“I’m proud that Google continues to grow here and call California home,” Newsom said