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Google to buy NYC building for $2.1 billion

Emily McCormick gives her latest hot take on Google's latest $2.1 billion purchase of office space in NYC and the reasoning behind this purchase as working from home continues to be a popular option for employees.

Video transcript

EMILY MCCORMICK: But one other thing that I want to highlight here, my hot take is on Google. Now, this company is buying a New York City office building for $2.1 billion, Brian. It's a massive 1.3 million square foot office building here in Manhattan along the Hudson riverfront.

Important distinction here is that for this latest office complex, Google already has been leasing this property but has not yet owned it. And I think with this story what's so interesting is we've been talking about these tech companies actually moving away from having to require their workers to go back into the office. They've been having more flexibility in terms of fully remote or hybrid work from home type situations.

But this is Google's way of saying, you know, this is still a major part of our long-term strategy, still having a central hub here for our workers, still having a hub here in New York because we should mention that they have about 12,000 people in the city in its latest workforce-- or in its workforce outside of California.

And then, of course, in terms of timing, we have been seeing that drop in office-space and commercial-real-estate rental prices. And given these massive cash reserves that a lot of these big tech companies have commanded over the course of the pandemic, it seems like Google is putting some of that to work here, Brian.

BRIAN SOZZI: Oh, good hot take. Two points from me. One, a big win for Google. A big loss for Amazon who obviously is not coming to New York City anytime soon. Secondarily, I know one thing that will look good in that massive space, Emily, maybe it's a GameStop store. Maybe Google and GameStop could link up together.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Perhaps. Definitely something we will watch here as we see some of these new tech giants actually coming back into that in-person office space.