So IBM abandons the WeWork space at the end of May (@OP+15fbjmK4) and now they're looking to purchase a building outright or sign a presumably long-term lease on one? Guess now's the time when commercial real estate prices are low, but this is still mismanagement of space resources (look at the Poughkeepsie site as a prime example) and seems to portend a return-to-the-office strategy.
https://therealdeal.com/2020/07/31/ibm-narrows-search-for-big-manhattan-office/
The reason for the Manhattan/NYC office space is that is where people want to work (or did, at least, pre-pandemic), Google must own a whole block, Amazon has a lot space down by Hudson Yards, Facebook, and there are others there. To some degree, a company has to locate some of its people near where customers are, and where sought after employees want to work. NYC is after all the biggest USA city by far, a center for finance and the arts, etc.
But I figure IBM looking for office space there when they used to have 590 Madison is kind of ironic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/590_Madison_Avenue
What goes around, comes around, I guess. Expensive place to live, but not like Silicon Valley or San Francisco are cheap.
It is quite odd that IBM doesn't have offices in a more prominent location like Great American Parkway in Santa Clara. The fact is that IBM wouldn't fit in at more mainstream Silicon Valley addresses. Would be kind of like having one's grandparents at a weekend frat party. IBM was more leading edge technology back in the 1980's. Now, IBM is seen as a legacy dinosaur.
Cuomo will buy you a drink with my tax money. What a sport. No business in their right mind would move to New York.
If a company can’t have a presence in New York and Silicon Valley, it’s a sign they aren’t a major player in tech anymore.
IBM's presence in Silicon Valley is strange - there is a complex that is technically San Jose, but is very very far south - almost in the mushroom farm town of Morgan Hill. The other Silicon Valley location is at the top of a small mountain in the hills - both are far and away from the rest of the valley. Most of the valley does not know IBM is there - they are separated by 20+ miles and 1+ hours (traffic!) by car.
Once upon a time, IBM had a location that was a few miles closer, but it was closed (in the 1980s?) and is now a toxic superfund site because of IBM's activities there.
Again, most of the valley is not aware that IBM even exists.
Cuomo begs wealthy New Yorkers to come back to save the city and pleads 'I'll buy you a drink!' as he fights off calls to raise their taxes - which he fears may scare them away forever
Leave it to IBM to be the only company moving to a city thousands are running away from.
Symbolic to have NYC presence? Yeah, the boarded up windows look will do wonders for IBM.
Having a New York office is more symbolic than anything and is only logical to maintain given most of our top 250 clients are in finance. If a company can’t have a presence in New York and Silicon Valley, it’s a sign they aren’t a major player in tech anymore.