Crews have started work on Google’s new campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, on the edge of Amazon’s global headquarters.
The project, which is being developed by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Real Estate, spans two full blocks. It will include about 600,000 square feet of office space, along with a residential tower on each block with a combined 149 units, said Lori Mason Curran, Vulcan Real Estate investment strategy director.
Work began earlier this month on the project, which was announced last year, and it will be complete in early 2019.
Vulcan also has an adjacent block that is not a part of the Google project. Mason Curran said this site is planned for 216 residential units and 161,000 square feet of office space. Vulcan won’t start this block until it lands a tenant.
Amazon has long been the main player in South Lake Union. But Google’s entrance into the neighborhood down the road, as well as a rapidly growing presence for Facebook, should make for plenty of competition for top talent.
Today, Google’s Seattle area footprint includes offices in the Fremont neighborhood and the Eastside suburb of Kirkland, Wash. It is unclear what Google will do with its Fremont space once the new Seattle campus is ready, but for now it is still investing in the neighborhood. Earlier this year Google signed a deal to sublease the former Sound Mind & Body Gym space, which Tableau transformed into approximately 50,000 square feet of tech office space in 2014 for its engineering team.
