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Google is buying an office in Chicago

As Meta and Twitter roll back their office expansions, Google is going all in.

A lawn surrounded by office buildings at Google's headquarters

Google is buying the Thompson Center, a famed building housing government offices in downtown Chicago, for $105 million.

Photo: Google

Google is buying the Thompson Center, a famed building housing government offices in downtown Chicago, for $105 million. The building will be renovated and redeveloped into a headquarters for Google's employees.

The move comes at a time when most other tech companies are cutting down on office space. Twitter is reducing its office presence in San Francisco, New York and Sydney in an effort to cut costs, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Meta and Amazon are slowing their planned New York office expansions.

Google has more than 2,000 Chicago-based employees and has reportedly been looking to expand its Chicago office presence for months. Its current office is located in the Fulton Market area of Chicago. The company brought employees back to the office in April, requiring workers to come in three days a week. Some employees were unhappy about this policy, claiming it was applied unevenly across Google.

Lizzy Lawrence

Lizzy Lawrence ( @LizzyLaw_) is a reporter at Protocol, covering tools and productivity in the workplace. She's a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied sociology and international studies. She served as editor in chief of The Michigan Daily, her school's independent newspaper. She's based in D.C., and can be reached at llawrence@protocol.com.

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