Another Google Village Approved, But Will They Build It?

Last year at this time, a partnership between Google and Australia-based Lendlease was trumpeting plans to build not one, but four urban villages in the heart of Silicon Valley to serve as bedroom live/work/play communities for legions of tech workers.

Two of the four urban village mixed-use developments were planned for Mountain View, one was slated for San Jose and the other for Sunnyvale.

Cumulatively, the $15B worth of projects envisioned more than 15,000 new housing units and more than 15M SF of new office space, as well as hospitality and retail outlets, according to marketing info on the Lendlease website.

Furthest along was Downtown West, in downtown San Jose next to the Didiron train station, where a new neighborhood would be built with up to 7.3M SF of offices; 5,900 housing units; 500K of retail, restaurants and entertainment venues; 100K of event space; 300 hotel rooms and a new energy plant.

Last week, the Mountain View City Council approved plans for North Bayshore, a 153-acre master-planned mixed-use village that would include up to 7K new homes (of which 1,400 would be affordable), two hotels and more than 3M SF.

Also planned are Moffett Park in northern Sunnyvale, where the city is hoping to build up to 20K new homes and 8M SF of new office space on parcels that are owned by Google and Lockheed Martin, among others; and Middlefield Park in Mountain View, which will feature 1,900 residential units in a mixed-use village.

No timeline was given for construction of North Bayshore when the plans were unanimously approved by the city council last week, a reflection of the uncertainty that has crept into the four villages planned by Google and Lendlease.

Throughout last year, Google insisted that it was preparing to break ground this year on the San Jose urban village, which it said was needed to support up to 25,000 workers.

However, in February, Google announced it was trimming its workforce with 12,000 layoffs, including 1,600 job cuts in the Bay Area. The search giant also said it was “reassessing the timeline” for Downtown West. Shortly after Google’s February announcement, Lendlease confirmed that it was trimming its staff in the Bay Area.

At the end of April, the other shoe dropped: Google disclosed it had halted construction on the 80-acre Downtown West project in San Jose, CNBC reported.

According to CNBC’s report, Google gave no indication as to the length of the construction pause on the project. The report cited unnamed sources who said they remain optimistic the urban village eventually will be built—”perhaps not at the scale envisioned in the original plans.”

The partnership agreement between Lendlease and Google envisioned completion of the four urban villages within 15 years.

Under the terms of the deal, the partners will jointly undertake the master planning, entitlement and development of four new neighborhoods, with Google focusing on the delivery of the office components and Lendlease as the developer, builder and owner of the residential, retail, hospitality and community components.

The North Bayshore project approvals last week included a 30-year Development Agreement and a Tentative Map to create 37 new parcels including 7,000 condominium lots, 360 commercial condominium lots, and 526 vertical lots. The city council also certified a Subsequent Environmental Impact Report and adopted a statement of overriding considerations.

The 153-acre North Bayshore Master Plan area is bounded by Charleston Road to the north, Stevens Creek to the east, Space Park Way to the south and Huff Avenue to the west.

The plan area also includes: portions of the Gateway Master Plan area located at the northwest corner of Shoreline Boulevard and the US 101 freeway northbound on-ramp; six parcels between San Antonio Road and Marine Way; and the Shoreline Amphitheatre parcel north of Amphitheatre Parkway.