Google, one of the world's largest companies, is shrinking its office footprint again amid a larger wave of workstation cuts from tech firms.
The Mountain View, California-based company is marketing nearly 98,000 square feet for sublease at The Bluffs, an office complex at 12181 Bluff Creek Drive in Los Angeles' Playa Vista neighborhood, according to CoStar data. The sublease space comes after Google leased more than 50,000 square feet in the building in April 2022 as part of a nationwide expansion strategy.
Now, the tech giant is shrinking its real estate footprint as it faces an uncertain economy and rising interest rates. Google, a part of Alphabet, listed in May more than 1.4 million square feet for sublease in Silicon Valley. The company occupies a whopping 42 million square feet in the U.S., according to CoStar data.
Alphabet revealed in January it was laying off 12,000 people, according to a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. CEO Sundar Pichai said in the filing the company had hired "for a different economic reality than the one we face today" after two years of dramatic growth.
Google is not alone. Major tech companies including Meta, Amazon and others also have put up hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space for sublease.
A record amount of office sublease space has hit the market since the start of the pandemic as companies rethink their physical footprint needs due to higher interest rates, layoffs and the popularity of working from home. In greater Los Angeles, more than 12 million square feet of office space is available for sublease, according to CoStar data. While a record high for L.A., the amount of sublease space is still less than 3% of greater L.A.'s total office inventory.
The Marina del Rey-Venice office market, which includes Playa Vista, has a 26.8% vacancy rate, well above the greater L.A. average of 15%, according to CoStar data. The market's average rent is $56.76 per square foot, above the greater L.A. average of $42.13 per square foot.
Meanwhile, Google still is planning to move into its roughly 584,000-square-foot One Westside office at 10800-10900 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles at some point this year. A representative for Google couldn't be reached for comment.
For the Record
Newmark's Eric Adams and Chris Strickfaden are marketing The Bluffs space for sublease, according to CoStar data.