Alphabet Inc’s Google has agreed to pay more than $2billion for New York City’s Chelsea Market building, the Real Deal reported on Tuesday.
Google, already the largest tenant with about 400,000 square feet in the building, is buying the property from Atlanta-based real estate investment firm Jamestown LP, people familiar with the matter told the website.
Google’s plans for the building were unclear but it is expected to maintain the status quo on the property’s retail levels, according to the report. The first floor of the building houses several restaurants and clothing stores and has become a tourist attraction thanks to its location right off the High Line park.
But because the company has been expanding rapidly in New York, it likely the office tenants in the building will be pressured to move.
The 1.2 million-square-foot office-and-retail property at 75 Ninth Avenue is home to the offices of several companies including Major League Baseball, the New York 1 news channel and the Food Network. The MLB has a lease with the building until 2022.
Google’s headquarters at 111 Eighth Ave, which they bought for $1.77billion in 2010, are located right across the street from the market.
However, they have struggled to kick all of the tenants out of the 2.9million-square-foot building in the seven years they’ve become the owners, so have had to expand.
They’re also leasing 240,000 square feet of offices in 85 10th Ave on the other side of the market, and have signed a deal to lease an additional 250,000 square feet in the under-development SuperPier.
While the pier is under construction, Google has been in talks to temporarily take 200,000 square feet of office space in the Starrett Lehigh building, a few blocks to the north, which is owned by the same company developing the SuperPier.
Alphabet could not be immediately reached for comment.
Chelsea Market was converted into a combined commercial/retail space in 1997, after initially being built in the 1890sas a cookie factory. For decades, it housed the Nabisco factories and is the place where the Oreo was invented.