Google parent company Alphabet has more than quadrupled its office footprint in Miami this year, following a series of massive residential real estate purchases across South Florida by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a report has said. The search giant reportedly signed a new commercial lease to expand its regional footprint to roughly 45,000 square feet (4,180 square meters), adding to its existing 10,000-square-foot satellite office located at 1450 Brickell Avenue in Miami’s financial district.Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report said that the expansion was driven in part by the co-founders setting up personal residences in the area as California prepares to hold a high-stakes ballot referendum on taxing the ultra-rich.
Billion-dollar relocations by rich techies to South Florida
Page and Brin, whose combined fortune exceeds $573 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, have spent heavily on local luxury properties over the past year. While Larry Page has amassed $188 million in Miami real estate, including a $101.5 million estate in the upscale Coconut Grove neighborhood, Sergey Brin has purchased a $51 million waterfront home in Miami Beach shortly after Page’s acquisitions.While the co-founders stepped down from executive roles in 2019, both remain on Alphabet’s board of directors and retain majority voting control over the firm. Brin, in particular, has taken an active hands-on role in guiding Google’s AI development.Notably, Google’s Miami footprint remains small compared to its 10-million-square-foot Mountain View headquarters and its 1.7-million-square-foot Hudson Square campus in New York. Other executives who have bought properties in South Florida include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He bought a $170 million estate on “billionaire bunker” island. Palantir’s Alex Karp bought a Miami Beach home before moving Palantir’s global HQ to Miami.
