Google ends deal to build 15,000 Bay Area homes due to “market conditions”

Enlarge / Google's conceptual rendering of its housing plan. (credit: Google)

Google has ended an agreement with a developer to build 15,000 homes in the San Francisco Bay Area, including affordable housing, as it continues a string of cost-cutting moves to reduce real estate costs. Google said it is "looking at a variety of options" to provide housing despite ending the development deal but didn't offer specific details on its plans.

Google partnered with the Australian company Lendlease in 2019 on a $15 billion plan for "residential, retail, hospitality, and community development space," with an expected completion date of 2038. Lendlease was to be the developer, builder, and owner of the residential, retail, hospitality, and community components, while Google also planned a related office expansion. Including office space, the developments could have covered 15 million square feet.

But on Friday, Lendlease and Google announced that they "mutually reached an agreement to end the Development Services Agreements of the four master-planned districts in San Jose (Downtown West), Sunnyvale (Moffett Park), and Mountain View (Middlefield Park and North Bayshore) in the San Francisco Bay area in California, collectively referred to as the San Francisco Bay Project." Google is making a payment to Lendlease as part of the agreement to part ways.