Google to Develop New HQ in London’s King’s Cross

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

Courtesy of Creative Commons flickr user Brian Smithson

Tech giant Google Inc. is looking to cement its position in the European market, particularly the white-hot London business world after it was recently announced that the company is looking to develop a brand new European HQ. The company has acquired a 2.4-acre site, part of the master planned King’s Cross Central development. The new headquarters facility would have around 1 million square feet of prime office space for Google’s employees and the total value of the finished project would stand around $1.5 billion.

Google’s involvement will most likely be a jolt for the King’s Cross regeneration project, and the move cements the importance of one of the largest revitalization plans in the English capital. The project’s go-ahead means that now more than 50 percent of the planned 8 million square feet of commercial space at King’s Cross Central are either completed or committed. The Internet juggernaut will reportedly invest around $1 billion in the land acquisition deal and the development process for the facility.

Slated for a 2016-completion date, Google’s forthcoming HQ will range in height from 7 to 11 stories and will allow the company to move its current employees, located in both Victoria and Holborn. Construction at the newly acquired site will commence in late 2013 with move-in capability set for mid-year, 2016.

The 63-acre King’s Cross development site will include a housing component, massive amounts of office space, as well a substantial retail element. Already in development at the site are office projects One and Two Pancras Square, two buildings that are currently under construction by King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership. The properties have completion dates set for late 2013 and early 2014, and will provide 200,000 square feet of Class A space for Google’s future neighbors. Companies that have already signed on for the Pancras Square buildings are the real estate division of French banking giant BNP Paribas and an Aga Khan-managed, cultural and education center for Ismaili Muslims.

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