As the largest occupant of real estate in the Bay Area, Google’s decision to let staff work from home will keep one of Silicon Valley’s largest workforces out of the office. Jesse Gundersheim, CoStar’s director of market analytics in the San Francisco Bay Area, said the company occupies at least 25 million square feet of office, flex and industrial space combined throughout the region.

While Google’s geographical footprint is predominantly concentrated in the Bay Area, the company leases or owns offices in major cities around the world, including New York; Los Angeles; Seattle; Portland, Oregon; and Atlanta. Earlier this year, the company had planned to invest more than $10 billion in new offices and data centers across the country, a figure that has since dropped dramatically because of its response to the pandemic.

Google’s decision earlier this year to keep employees home came before other tech companies decided to follow suit. Potions of the tech office population may never return.

CoSrat News. 7/27/2020. Read more here.