Google Opens Up Offices for Vaccine Campaigns

Kirkland Urban

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced that the company will open its office spaces to serve as vaccination sites. The tech giant will partner with health-care provider One Medical and public health authorities to convert buildings, parking lots and open spaces to vaccination clinics available to anyone eligible for the shot. The initiative will start in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Kirkland, Wash., with plans to expand the program nationally.

According to CommercialEdge data, Google’s real estate footprint includes the 1.4 million-square-foot San Bruno, Calif., location in San Francisco and the roughly 530,000 square-foot Kirkland Urban, which the company acquired in 2019 and is situated 14 miles from Seattle’s dowtown. Additionally, Google owns some 4.4 million square feet across three properties in Manhattan. Recently, the company unveiled plans for a massive, 80-acre mixed-use development in downtown San Jose, Calif.

Putting space to good use

Almost a year into the pandemic and physical office occupancy hasn’t cracked 30 percent for the country’s top 10 largest markets, even though some metros, specifically Texas cities, have fared a bit better, Kastle Systems data shows. With employees working remove and so much unused space available, office occupiers are rethinking their space to accommodate the needs of workers in a post-pandemic world.

Google is joining other companies offering their unused space for the fight against COVID-19. Last week, Amazon announced it will work with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health to organize pop-up clinics to administrate vaccines at their facilities. In a recent CNBC interview, Rudin Management CEO William Rudin said his company may turn some of its empty retail space into testing sites.