Google To Build Its Own $82 Million Terminal At San Jose Airport
In a 2003 interview with SearchEngineWatch.com, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, “Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines, unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.”
Brin couldn’t have anticipated the wealth and power Google would someday achieve, however. In fact, the Silicon Valley giant will soon have its own $82 million terminal at the San Jose International Airport. The facility, consisting of 29 acres and five hangars — one large enough to house a Boeing 747, will support Google’s private fleet of jets. According to TechCrunch, Google’s top three executives – Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt – own about eight planes between them, including a converted 767 known as the “party plane.”
To accommodate its aviation fervor, Google has partnered with Signature Flight Support, a subsidiary of BBA Aviation, to build the terminal at the San Jose International Airport.
“It is a significant private development and Google is the main tenant, but it is not their airport,” Mineta spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes told AFP on Wednesday.
The terminal, which will feature an executive suite, catering and two additional hangars for other Silicon Valley companies, will be contracted with Signature on a 50-year-lease with an annual rent of $2.6 million. Its completion is expected in mid-2015.
The project, made possible by the airport’s $1.3 billion modernization plan, is expected to create between 150 and 200 construction jobs, 36 permanent jobs at the airport and 370 other positions related directly and indirectly.
