Google expands King’s Cross empire with another mystery building
The internet search giant has secured a plot behind Central St Martins College known simply as "S2", according to property developer Argent.
The secret S2 building, expected to be built by Argent by 2017 at the earliest, will be 11 storey's high with 180,000 square foot. It will be constructed within a few hundred metres of the now-closed Google Glass store.
It's understood that Google has agreed a 15-year lease for S2 at around £55 per sq ft.
Google first announced its intent to move the majority of its UK staff to King's Cross in January 2013, stating that it would build and open a £1 billion UK headquarters on a brownfield plot behind King's Cross train station by 2016.
However, the Mountain View company, recently restructured under Alphabet Inc, is yet to start building the property. The reason: Larry Page, former Google CEO, said the architect's designs weren't ambitious enough.
Google has brought in British designer Thomas Heatherwick to draw up new plans but it's unlikely that the HQ will be finished for several years.
To make up for the lack of a new headquarters, Google is leasing all of 6 Pancras Square, which can accommodate up to 5,000 people.
The 6 Pancras Square building, being leased to Google through the real estate arm of French bank BNP Paribas, is now finished and is in the kitting out stages. It's understood that the building should be ready to move into by the end of 2015.
While Google is yet to publicly up sticks and move out of its Tottenham Court Road and Victoria offices, Techworld recently discovered that there are one group of Googlers quietly working away in a building in King's Cross.
The 150-strong Google DeepMind team moved into 7 Pancras Square this year to continue their work on artificial intelligence. The inconspicuous building has no Google signs.
Google also has a team of investors in Clerkenwell that are backing startups across Europe through Google Ventures Europe, which has a pot of $125 million (£82 million) to play with.
Google declined to comment.