If current plans hold, Google’s growth at its new Sixth Street South offices will make it Kirkland’s second largest employer.
After giving a short statement to a crowd at the unfinished office park on June 25, Google Facilities Manager Michael Nolan said the Mountainview, Calif.-based company plans to fill the complex with hundreds of software developers and project managers to work on products such as Google Maps and Google Video. The space — the first to be designed in part by Google — will have a capacity of 1,000 employees, making it the company’s largest office in the Pacific Northwest and fourth largest worldwide.
Nolan said Google planned its growth in Kirkland because of the area’s high-tech workforce. “We locate our offices where the talent pool is,” he said.
The plan is to move in by April 2009, Nolan said. Google also tentatively plans to consolidate the over 400 employees from its Kirkland offices at 720 Fourth Avenue South and 5808 Lake Washington Boulevard into the office park. The growth will make the search-engine giant the second largest employer in Kirkland, behind Evergreen Hospital, which has a staff of over 2,850.
The development at 747 Sixth Street South could also have several significant impacts on the city: Earlier this year, the City Council closely examined a number of traffic intersections near the offices, which sit atop more than 600 stalls of underground parking. With a new head tax on businesses currently being considered at City Hall, a large Google workforce could boost the city’s bottom line. And an influx of well paid, hi-tech sector jobs is likely to improve the city’s sagging real estate market — now weighed down by a large inventory of expensive homes.
The event, hosted by SRM Development (the firm working with Google on the project), brought together over 200 local business leaders, city planners and residents to learn about the complex’s “green” design features.
Led by SRM Development Manager Andy Loos, the crowd toured the building for a first-hand look at its nearly completed exteriors and Lake Washington views.
Once a US Navy warehouse, the 7.2 acres of land the complex sits on had been badly polluted and declared a “brownfield” site. Working with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Evnironmental Design) accredited ArchEcology architect Nancy Henderson, SRM is working to clean up the property and install such conservation-minded features as recycled and low or chemical free (VOC) materials, water efficient toilets and plumbing and high-occupancy and low-emitting-preferred parking.
The 195,000-square-foot development of three buildings is expected to earn at least a Silver LEED rating.
Organizers said Mayor Jim Lauinger was originally expected to attend, but was not present. Loos said the mayor’s role in the appeal of the Bank of America project on Kirkland Avenue and Lake Street South may have presented a conflict of interest because SRM is one of the parties involved in the appeal.
Kirkland’s top 10 employers, by number, as of April 25, 2008
1. Evergreen Healthcare: 2,850
2. City of Kirkland: 581
3. Nintendo: 515
4. Kenworth Truck Co.: 427
5. Clearwire: 400
6. Wireless Data Services: 390
7. Ciber, Inc.: 200
8. Google: 200
9. Lake Vue Gardens Convalescent: 200
10. Lake Washington Technical College: 200
Information compiled by the City of Kirkland
