Google has reached a deal with developer
Walnut Capital to lease an additional 70,000-square-feet of office space in
Bakery Square.
The expansion, which will result in Google's occupation of 115,000 of
the 250,000-square-foot development in East Liberty suggests that Google
might be hiring as many as 500 new employees, and Walnut Capital sees
Google's rapid growth in Pittsburgh as a great sign of further retail
development in the area.
"As we shared during
our office opening in early December, more than 150 engineers at Google
Pittsburgh are now settled into roughly 40,000-square-feet of space
across two floors of Bakery Square," says Kamal Nigam, engineering
director at Google Pittsburgh. "To accomidate future growth, we recently
leased two additional floors—bringing the total to more than
100,000-square-feet. We're actively hiring and look forwards to being
part of Pittsburgh's technology community over the months and years
ahead."
While Google has yet to comment on the
specific reasons why they have chosen to expand only months after moving
into Bakery Square, the company plans to begin occupying the space this
year. With Google now taking up nearly half of the $130 million
redevelopment project's space and the immediate popularity of
Anthropologie's
Bakery Square location since it opened last summer, Walnut Capital
believes new retailers are seriously eyeing East Liberty as the city's
next big shopping destination neighborhood. As further evidence of development boom,
Urban Outfitters will open Free People, a boutique women's store, in Bakery Square January 28.
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Writer:
John Farley
Sources: Kamal Nigam, Google Pittsburgh
Gregg Perelman, Walnut Capital
Image courtesy of Google Pittsburgh