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Google coming to Ann Arbor

PaintBy123s

By PaintBy123s
in Ann Arbor

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mendelman Whistle-Stop

mendelman

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Google is opening an Ann Arbor facility to house 1000 jobs. There is also talk that the office would be located downtown. Any guesses as to where they could find office space for 1000 people?

Build some new 10-15 story office buildings on the giant parking lots behind Main Street along Ashley with commercial/retail spaces on the ground floors.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I wonder if Ann Arbor residents will get over their "height fright" mentality to make way for Google. Haven't they shot down quite a few tall buildings downtown lately. Although if Google wants 200,000 sq ft downtown, that may only be 6 or 7 stories.

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MJLO City

MJLO

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That is great! There will be a demand for more residential in the city. If google is talking about building downtown. Would the city break it's stalemate on tall developments and say perhaps allow them to build the cities tallests? I can see a need for more downtown condo's to go in. Technically I could create a number of mid to high rises for AA. Although I'd have my reservations. Anyone care to share what they think?

EDIT: dad we kinda posted the same thought at the same time. :)

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GaryP Burg

GaryP

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What a great day! I really hope they find a way to put the office downtown. An economic analysis by the MEDC estimates that 1,245 additional jobs would be generated because of this office.

What are the chances other tech companies follow? Yahoo sells ads the same way, is there any chance they come to Ann Arbor as well? It

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RustTown City

RustTown

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Amazing news! These are exactly the type of jobs we need in Michigan to continue to diversify our economy. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this, at all, as Michigan gets passed over so often. As good as this may be for Ann Arbor, it's an even bigger deal for the psyche of this state.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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About the height thing. A 6 or 7 story building could easily go up. It's pretty much anything over 14 stories the city will get all bent out of shape on. What I'd really like to see is a tall building that google would occupy with other businesses and companies. I would cry tear of happyness if we could at least get a 20 story building downtown. They really need to anchor the skyline on that end so our other 30 and 20 story towers aren't sitting so alone.

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peaceloveunderstanding Town

peaceloveunderstanding

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Several members of the management team have roots in the Michigan area, "so they know the quality of life is favorable," Finney told the E-Commerce Times. However, the company has not decided specifically on Ann Arbor. "They are reviewing their options now, looking for space that will accommodate 1,000 employees."

Google is considering any area within Washtenaw County, which includes Ann Arbor, McCormick said.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51707.html

That's interesting. They are certainly coming to Michigan and the Ann Arbor area, but it has not yet been decided if they will come in fact come to Ann Arbor proper. I don't think they will go downtown, but rather they will go somewhere where there is enough space for a suburban campus in nature of most tech campuses.

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MJLO City

MJLO

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About the height thing. A 6 or 7 story building could easily go up. It's pretty much anything over 14 stories the city will get all bent out of shape on. What I'd really like to see is a tall building that google would occupy with other businesses and companies. I would cry tear of happyness if we could at least get a 20 story building downtown. They really need to anchor the skyline on that end so our other 30 and 20 story towers aren't sitting so alone.

Yes but you have stated in other posts that the city is starting to understand that in order to keep itself competitive, and grow it's tax base, It will have to build up. Because it's effectively built out. Ann Arbor is the second most dense city in the state after Detroit, and slightly ahead of Grand Rapids. The city covers a very small land area.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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That does not mean the city will keep low-midrises out of mind, MJLO. In fact, the height of an office building in A2 is probably dependent on parking. So due to the lack of parking, Im sure they would be happy with a 6-7 story structure. What concerns me is that this will end up in Pittsfield township with all the other sprawling high-tech companies located in campuses and business parks. Theres easy freeway access and plenty of space for parking when you are south of I-94

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Jasoncw Hamlet

Jasoncw

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http://www.google.com/corporate/address.html

Clicking on the US locations, about half are in suburbs and half are not. Also, I noticed that a few of the offices are adjacent to universities. Combining that with the fact that U of M is one of the reasons they're coming there, I think it's possible that they'd go downtown.

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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http://www.google.com/corporate/address.html

Clicking on the US locations, about half are in suburbs and half are not. Also, I noticed that a few of the offices are adjacent to universities. Combining that with the fact that U of M is one of the reasons they're coming there, I think it's possible that they'd go downtown.

In the GR Press article, they had this to say:

The company has not picked a location yet, but Mayor John Heiftje said city officials have been told that Google is most interested in downtown Ann Arbor.

I'm sure they prefer to be close to the University, mass transit, amenities, etc.. They are, after all, going to be heavily recruiting college grads and not Soccer Moms and Dads.

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mgman Whistle-Stop

mgman

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I think once they sit down and actually look at the numbers, they will locate somewhere outside of the city, like Pittsfield. At first I thought there was no way they could locate downtown because of the parking issue but if they use once of the locations downtown, like city hall or the library area, they could build a parking garage on one of the other sites. (Build the office where the old YMCA is and a garage next to the library). So the more I think about it the more I think it is possible.

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PaintBy123s Crossroads

PaintBy123s

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I certainly hope they put Google downtown. Part of the excitement of this deal is to decrease the temptation for young talent to leave the state for other downtown environments.

I'm assuming that the majority of their workforce will comprise of graduates of UM... and I assume that many of them would continue to lease student apartments. I wonder how many parking spots they feel they will need? Does anyone know how many cars the current downtown parking structures can accomodate?

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