Google expands in Miami after its billionaire founders buy homes
Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have bought lavish homes in the Florida city
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ALPHABET has more than quadrupled its office space in Miami this year shortly after co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin bought homes in the area.
Google’s parent company signed a lease this spring to expand to about 4,180 square metres (sq m), adding to its existing 929 sq m satellite office located at 1450 Brickell Avenue in the city’s financial district, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The expansion was partially driven by the co-founders’ recent residential real estate purchases, the people said, who asked not to be identified citing private negotiations.
The pair, whose combined wealth exceeds US$573 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, established a footprint in South Florida as California prepares to hold a ballot referendum on taxing the assets of the ultra-rich.
Google, which declined to comment, has had a presence in Miami since 2016.
The expanded office in Miami is still a small outpost for the tech giant. Its Mountain View headquarters and surrounding offices encompass 929,000 sq m with tens of thousands of employees, while its New York Hudson Square campus spans 158,000 sq m.
But it’s a sign that at least some of the wealthy newcomers who have been snapping up real estate in Miami are helping to grow businesses locally rather than simply shielding personal fortunes from higher levies in other states.
As billionaires have poured into South Florida in recent years, the influx has raised questions about whether there are broader economic benefits for the community that has seen real estate prices skyrocket.
Page amassed US$188 million in Miami real estate in the past year, including a US$101.5 million estate in the upscale Coconut Grove neighbourhood. Brin purchased a US$51 million waterfront home in Miami Beach soon after.
While Page and Brin stepped down from their executive roles in 2019, they remain on the board and together retain majority voting control of the firm. Lately, Brin has taken a particularly active role in shaping the company’s AI efforts.
Other tech moguls have also recently purchased homes in the area.
Meta Platforms founder Mark Zuckerberg broke a Miami-Dade County record with a US$170 million purchase on a private island community known as “billionaire bunker” in March.
Palantir Technologies chief executive Alex Karp quietly purchased a Miami Beach home last year before announcing the company was moving its headquarters to Miami in February. BLOOMBERG
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