Malls Get Second Life as High-Tech Company Campuses

A former shopping mall will be the new site of Google, Inc. after what has been described as the year’s biggest commercial real estate lease deal so far in Silicon Valley. The mall, which is being revamped into office space, is in Mountain View, Calif.

Google isn’t the only tech company that has caught onto the concept of using retail properties as company campuses. A provider of Web-based computing services paid $32.7 million for an abandoned, 1.2 million-square-foot mall in San Antonio for office space.

Google’s new campus, which is set to be completed next year, was the site of the first enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall in northern California and is less than an hour away from downtown San Francisco by train. Repurposing obsolete malls can be a challenge if the surrounding area has declined. Mountain View isn’t facing that problem, however; it has been described by CRE experts as an ideal place for office campuses that high-tech companies prize.