A lot of money for nothing Google is giving up its Zurich site - without ever having moved in
Google is renting an office building in Zurich at the end of 2022. It has not yet used the location. Nevertheless, the company is now selling the site again.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Google is selling a rented office building on General-Guisan-Quai in Zurich.
- The location was rented three years ago and is estimated to have cost the company several million francs.
- No one has ever worked there. The offices remained empty. And it will stay that way.
- The financial loss is insignificant for the tech giant.
- The Group is holding on to a second vacant office building on Müllerstrasse for strategic reasons.
An office building directly on the lake with several thousand square meters of space: Google has paid several million francs to rent such a building on General-Guisan-Quai in Zurich over the past three years. It has not used the premises - and never will.
The company confirmed this to the Tagesanzeiger newspaper. Instead, the tech giant wants to concentrate on existing locations in the Hürlimann-Areal and Europaallee in Zurich.
At the same time, additional offices have been rented on Europaallee. It is not yet known when the first employees will move in there.
Second vacant building will be retained
There is also a location rented by Google on Müllerstrasse that has so far remained unused. The newly renovated offices cover 15,500 square meters. The company is holding on to them - for the sake of flexibility.
A spokesperson told the Tagesanzeiger newspaper that the Müllerstrasse location is being retained so that the company can "react quickly to any strategic changes".
Critics see this practice as a waste of potential living space. However, it is questionable whether the office buildings could be converted for this purpose for building law reasons alone.
The loss of millions due to unused real estate is of little concern to the company. In 2024, Google achieved a turnover of 121 billion US dollars. It was the first time that the 100 billion mark was broken.
