Office Buildings

Google South Lake Union Campus Under Construction – Imager Credit: SounderBruce (CC by SA-2.0)

Last week, Vulcan Real Estate, founded by Microsoft pioneer Paul Allen, announced plans for the extension of the in-progress Google campus in South Lake Union, a neighborhood currently dominated by Amazon. The new plans will extend the campus, currently under construction, to a third block, likely adding another 322,000 sq ft to the currently 607,000 sq ft project. While the original two blocks will likely be completed in 2019, the newly announced area will just be starting construction at the end of that year, with an estimated completion date in 2021. The completed project will not only consist of office space, but retail and residential units as well. Altogether, the new campus will have room for an estimated 6,200 people.

Industry watchers are interpreting Google’s South Lake Union campus as an intimating move towards Seattle tech giant Amazon. In fact, the new construction site is directly across an alleyway from one of Amazon’s original buildings. Google has also been aggressively acquiring real estate in other parts of the Seattle metro, including large parts of the Fremont neighborhood and purported expansions to its existing Kirkland campus.