Dealmaker: Google to Pay $2.4B for New York Office Space

Google plans to buy even more office space in Chelsea on Manhattan’s West Side.

The transaction has not closed, but the New York Times reported Google will pay Jamestown LP, Atlanta, $2.4 billion to acquire Chelsea Market, an office-and-retail property at 75 Ninth Avenue. The asset–originally a Nabisco factory–sits across the street from 111 Eighth Avenue, the former Port Authority shipping terminal Google acquired in 2010 from Jamestown.

Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets Chairman Douglas Harmon advised the tech company, the Times reported. He declined to comment. CBRE represented Google in the transaction.

The New York Post called the transaction the second-largest ever in New York City. Ivanhoe Cambridge and Blackstone paid $5.3 billion for the 80-acre Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village apartments in 2015.

Google will have the right add eight stories or 300,000 square feet to the nine-floor property, which occupies an entire city block, the Times said.

The Real Deal New York reported Google is currently the building’s largest tenant with nearly 400,000 square feet of space. A large food hall, Major League Baseball and the Food Network occupy the remaining space.

The deal represents the first billion-dollar-plus trade to go under contract in the city this year, Real Deal New York said. Analysts expect it will close within two months.

Only one single-building transaction broke the $2 billion threshold last year, Real Deal New York reported. Chinese firm HNA paid Brookfield Property Partners and New York State Teachers’ Retirement System $2.2 billion for 245 Park Avenue last March.