Google to Buy Entire Manhattan City Block for $2 Billion?

Google may be close to buying the massive building at 111 Eight Ave in Manhattan that takes up an entire city block, according to the New York Post.

The price is rumored to be tantalizingly close to $2 billion. The 18-story Chelsea giant carries 2.9 million square feet of space and covers an entire city block -- between Eighth and Ninth avenues from 15th and 16th streets.

At that price, the sale works out to around $690 per square foot, very respectable for 2010 but far less than the $1,500 a square foot that was commonplace in the heady days of 2007.


Google already rents over half a million square feet in the building that houses tenants ranging from Nike to WebMD. Sources tell the NYP that Google was only one of many interested buyers including local families, real-estate investment trusts, overseas entities from Beijing, Singapore, Chile, Argentina and Israel, along with sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Asia.

"The world has been waiting for the right type of asset," said one NYP source on the level of interest that was generated.

Read More [via Junot]