Google already occupies the majority of the space above the market - at least 3 full floors (As of a couple years ago). It's not much of a change for any New Yorkers except that they tend not to renew leases for other office space tenants.
Chelsea Market is actually 19 different buildings on the same block that have merged together over time. The floor layout is truly crazy. Some floors are staggered by a full half height at the interface between buildings, there are exterior courtyards on the inside of the block that are roofed over, and buildings are of differing height. You can see it all on Google Maps; contrast with 111 8th Ave next door (where I sit) that is all one proper building. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7402908,-74.0061411,325a,35y...
And yeah, we already have a huge amount of office space in Chelsea Market, up to six floors now, and presumably buying the entire block made sense vs continuing to rent.
Hopefully the ground floor marketspace itself won't be affected. I can't imagine we'd kick all that out, though. It wouldn't be a good look. Chelsea Market is an iconic tourist destination.
That hodgepodge mess of buildings really appeals to my inner Lego-building child.
We got an excellent post-recession deal on 111 8th Ave. Chelsea Market looks to be at booming economy rates, hence paying about the same amount of money for much less.
The building was originally not built as an office space, which is painfully obvious when you consider that it had more freight and truck elevators than people elevators.
Contrast with 111 8th Ave, which was built contemporaneously with the Empire State Building (and in the same aesthetic). It uses reinforced concrete and steel I-beam construction throughout. The brick you see from the outside is just an aesthetic facade; this is a solid building.
Oh, and there's two skybridges -- one that goes nowhere, and one that goes across 10th Ave to our space in that building.
This sounds like a pretty awesome, yet harsh, way to handle internal performance reviews...
Top performers get to walk over to 10th ave for cake and coffee. Low performers get to walk the plank, taking a skybridge to "nowhere", and are never heard from again.
... Need to get a subordinate to shape up? Take her up by the skybridge to nowhere and then tell her how important your TPS reports are. She'll get the hint.
I couldnt have put it better - I got the exact same feeling from his comment. I was thinking "well that just sounds AWESOME"
complexity should be no problem for Google engineers