The San Jose city officials on Tuesday night officially approved a plan for Google to build a huge campus in San Jose, in the heart of California’s third-largest city.
The nod of approval means that Google can now move ahead with its “Downtown West” project which will stretch 80 acres of land in downtown San Jose, the council documents revealed. This will be one of the biggest campuses anywhere in the world.
The mixed mega campus will include 7.3 million square feet of office space for 20,000 workers, 50,000 square feet to shops, restaurants, and other space, 15,000 acres of parks, and 4,000 new homes.
Google also aims to provide $200 million in community benefits, which will include money for job training, homeless aid, and support for small businesses. This approval comes as the tech giant aims to shift from closed off-tech campuses to stem the growth in big cultural shifts of affordable housing and other tech hubs.
“There’s tremendous mistrust of the government and suspicion of Big Tech and it could have been easy for many of our community members simply to succumb to slogans and simplistic thinking but thousands rolled up their sleeves. Rather than jump in one camp or another, community members pushed and prodded, and urged the city and Google to stretch and reach higher” – San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo said on Tuesday.
The construction of the project could begin as early as next year, ultimately will take 10 to 30 years to completely finish it.