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Fremont New Home for Google Sales Office

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 21:00 CDT

By Kim Peterson, The Seattle Times

May 24--Google moved into new space in Fremont this month, but the office isn't exactly a threat to Microsoft.

In fact, the salespeople there consider Microsoft a valuable client. They're also fans of the Xbox 360 console, which they recently set up in their game room.

The Seattle sales-staff members -- nearly 30 in all -- moved from South Lake Union to new digs on North 34th Street, across the street from the Red Door Alehouse and an intersection away from a PCC Natural Market.

Fremont "has this really great small-town feel, and it's in the heart of Seattle," said Regan Hurley, head of the office. "It just made sense for us to be here."

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., also has an engineering operation in Kirkland.

The company wouldn't say how much it is paying to lease the Fremont space, which takes up the entire third floor and was previously occupied by technology company CapitalStream. Nor would the company confirm the square footage, but real-estate brokers have pegged it at about 14,000 feet. Hurley said the office could expand to about 75 employees.

The office is almost all sales staff, and focuses on helping clients place advertising in travel, retail and entertainment. Customers include some of the region's biggest names, including Microsoft, Expedia, Amazon.com, Nordstrom and RealNetworks.

Those customers are among Google's most sophisticated, said Tim Armstrong, vice president of advertising sales at the company. As a result, the Seattle office tends to be a minitechnology incubator, trying out innovations with key customers before they are widely adopted at Google.

And it enjoys some of the famous Google perks. There's the blackjack table, the pingpong table, the video-game room and the massage chair. There's the free gym memberships and the free lunch brought in daily by caterers. There's an espresso machine and snack bar, loaded with cereal, M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, pop and juice.

Every conference room is named after a bar. The lunchroom has a movie player, which recently featured "The 40-Year Old Virgin."

Fremont is becoming known as a tech center in Seattle, with Adobe, Getty Images and Impinj near Google's site.

"It's a very positive thing," said Raymond Glandon, store director of the PCC Natural Market. "Whenever you get a congregation of the same things together, it creates an interest and it helps that particular industry."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Seattle Times

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GOOG,

Source: The Seattle Times

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