Google has announced today the completion of their purchase of 111 Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, valuing the property at $1.9 billion.
The property is 2.9-million-square-feet and is the biggest deal in 2010 for a single building purchase in the U.S.
Google currently occupies 500,000 square feet in the building, and shares the space with Nike, Lifetime cable, WebMD and many telecoms.
The search giant is said to have won the contract because of its ability to close before the end of the year. The company has already put down a deposit in excess of $200 million.
111 used to be the headquarters for the Port Authority of NY and NJ.
Says Google of the deal:
Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000—a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales “team.” After moving to a larger office in Times Square, in 2006 we relocated to our current home in Chelsea, at 111 Eighth Avenue—a former Port Authority building. In June of 2008, we took additional space in the Chelsea Market building at 75 Ninth Avenue. Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering—and we’re hiring across the board.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue (also known as 76 Ninth Avenue). As part of the deal, we’ve retained Taconic Management Company to continue the leasing oversight services and management of the building on our behalf, providing the same level of customer service the building’s tenants have come to expect. We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city.
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Although it was severely delayed, Nokia has finally announced the launch of a beta version of its Music Store in India.
Indian customers can use the store to purchase music tracks, music videos and other pieces of digital content for their phones.
The store was delayed over 6 months, and will remain in beta phase for the time being. Currently you cannot even purchase content but can listen to 30 second clips of the songs.
More importantly for Indian users, the store will carry a “large selection of Indian music across different genres, which included music in regional Indian languages as well,” says Symbian Freak.
A Nokia spokesperson added that “The pricing mechanisms for India are currently being worked out.”
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The software giant Microsoft has officially started distributing the Release Candidate version of Windows 7. As expected, today they expanded the distribution to all of us average Joes, who now get a hold of the future de facto operating system.
The release candidate is said to include the same set of features as the final product so it will provide a good glimpse into Windows 7. Microsoft however doesn’t recommend this version for the beginners for it is still in development and therefore unstable and insecure.
You also cannot upgrade previous Windows installations to Windows 7 RC. You need to make a clean install which will also be the case when the final Windows 7 comes out. Beta or RC versions can neither be upgraded to final version.
Windows 7 RC is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for five languages - English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish. The file is in ISO format so you will need a DVD burner and an appropriate burning software such as ImgBurn or Nero.
