Searching for direction: Google’s downtown project stalls amid office space ‘annihilation’

AMID ONGOING TURBULENCE with office space vacancies, Google and an Australian development firm are ending their agreement to create four work and live districts in the South Bay worth $15 billion, including Downtown West in San Jose.

The tech giant on Friday said its split with Sydney-based Lendlease is not the end of its master-planned projects in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Mountain View. But some real estate and development experts say it’s not clear when Google will begin major work on Downtown West or its other major projects, which are set to include thousands of homes, millions of square feet of office and commercial space, as well as parks and plazas.