Google, Lendlease axe plans for $15 billion development in Bay Area
Alphabet’s Google has scrapped a development deal
to build $15 billion worth of homes, offices and retail space in California’s Silicon Valley.
Google and Australian developer Lendlease “mutually reached” a decision to end their San Francisco Bay Project for four master-planned districts in the cities of San Jose, Sunnyvale and Mountain View, Lendlease
announced Friday.
“The decision to end these agreements followed a comprehensive review by Google of its real estate investments, and a determination by both organizations that the existing agreements are no longer mutually beneficial given current market conditions,” Lendlease said in a statement.
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In June 2019, Google
made a $1 billion pledge to help develop more affordable housing in the increasingly unaffordable region.
At the time, Google said it would repurpose at least $750 million of the land it owns for at least 15,000 new homes priced for a variety of income levels and put $250 million toward a developer incentive fund to build 5,000 affordable housing units.
“Our goal is to help communities succeed over the long term, and make sure that everyone has access to opportunity, whether or not they work in tech,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai
wrote in a blog post in June 2019.
A month later, Google partnered with Lendlease to redevelop its landholdings for a 10- to 15-year project valued at $15 billion.
Earlier this year,
Google said 12,900 residences had been approved in Mountain View and San Jose, and more than 3,800 affordable modular homes and other affordable units were under construction.
“We’ve made steady progress, but it hasn’t been without its challenges,” Scott Foster, Google’s vice president of real estate and workplace services, wrote in the blog post. “And while we expect more periods of slowdown and others of acceleration, we remain committed to working alongside local governments and organizations to address the rising need for housing in our community.”
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