Google exercises option on land for second phase of Boulder campus

BOULDER — Google Inc., has exercised an option to purchase the land for the second phase of its new Boulder campus rather than leasing a finished building from developers as the company is doing for Phase 1.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based tech giant paid developers — a group that includes Denver-based firms Forum Real Estate Group and Brickstone Partners — just more than $7 million for the 1.45-acre parcel at 2930 Pearl St.

Developers broke ground last summer on the first phase of the $150 million project, which is slated to create a new 300,000-square-foot campus on 4.33 acres of land that wraps around the Chase Bank property at the southwest corner of 30th and Pearl streets. The first phase is to include two of the three buildings — about 200,000 square feet of space – on the southern portion of the property. Phase 2, meanwhile, will include the third building.

Darren Fisk, of Forum Real Estate Group, said Tuesday that he couldn’t comment on specifics of the recent land sale, but did note that nothing has changed with regard to developers’ original deal with Google. A spokesman for Google said in an email that there was “nothing new or noteworthy in the arrangement,” but declined further comment.

Google is planning to lease Phase 1 of the project, which is slated for completion next year, from Forum. As part of the development deal, Google had to either have developers move forward on Phase 2 by a specific date or buy the land. No specific timeline for Phase 2 has ever been made public, though Google officials have said in the past that the overall project would help the company ramp up to about 1,500 local employees — from the 300-plus spread among multiple locations in town now — over a period of up to 10 years.

A group led by Forum and Brickstone paid $12.2 million in 2013 to acquire the five parcels needed for the Google campus. Forum gained entitlements for the Google project and subdivided the assembled property into two parcels, one for each phase.

Fisk said construction remains on schedule for the first phase of the site. It’s unclear whether Google’s recent purchase might mean the company is planning to extend its timeline for Phase 2 construction further into the future.

“I don’t know what their plans are with it,” Fisk said of Google’s timeline for Phase 2.

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