NEW YORK - Google said on Wednesday that it had purchased an 18-story building in New York to house its more than 2,000-strong workforce in the city.

Google did not announce a purchase price for the building at 111 Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood but the New York Post put the cost at $1.77 billion.

The newspaper said the final price, including transfer taxes and assorted other fees, could be $1.9 billion.

"Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000, a scrappy, highly-caffeinated sales 'team,'" said David Radcliffe, Google's vice president for real estate and workplace services.

"Now we have more than 2 000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering, and we're hiring across the board," Radcliffe

said in a blog post.

"Today, we're pleased to announce that we've closed a deal with the partnership of Taconic Investment Partners, Jamestown Properties and the New York State Common Retirement Fund to purchase 111 Eighth Avenue," he added.

"We believe that this is a great real estate investment in a thriving neighborhood and a fantastic city," he said

According to the Post, the Art Deco building has "numerous back-up generators, lots of electrical power, antennas, fiber optics and high-tech facilities available to tenants."

Source: AFP