LinkedIn has received the go-ahead to redevelop its headquarters so it can more than double its workforce in Mountain View.
The tech giant is planning to build 1.08 million square feet of new offices in three six-story buildings and two six-level parking garages and demolish two existing two-story office buildings on its 29-acre campus. Currently, about 1,400 employees work at the site in the 700 and 800 blocks of Middlefield Road near the Sunnyvale border, and LinkedIn plans to bring in up to 3,060 additional employees, though at least half of the new construction won’t occur until 2022 or later.
The City Council on Nov. 27 unanimously approved the project, calling it a preview of higher-intensity office development in the works for the East Whisman plan area. LinkedIn’s project will come back for a second and final reading at the council’s Dec. 11 meeting.
“One of the benefits of this project is that it proves conclusively that we are not a one-company town,” Mayor Lenny Siegel said at the meeting. “We are planning to put substantial housing nearby. People who live in the new housing will be able to work at this project. … It’s part of the emerging vision that we have as a city for the entire East Whisman area.”
As part of the project, LinkedIn will provide $11 million toward transportation improvements, which could pay for safety and congestion fixes on one side of the State Road 237/Middlefield Road intersection. LinkedIn has already given $10 million to Housing Trust Silicon Valley, a nonprofit housing loan fund, which is being used to help build 163 new below-market housing units at 950 W. El Camino Real and 1100 La Avenida Ave. in Mountain View. Twenty of the units will be preserved for permanent supportive housing and 93 units will be set aside for residents who make 60 percent or below the area median income, according to Housing Trust. LinkedIn also has pledged $5 million toward affordable housing units throughout the Bay Area through Housing Trust’s new TECH Fund.
The first phase of LinkedIn’s project will be to erect a new building and parking garage along Middlefield Road, removing 419 trees — 138 of them heritage trees — and plant 1,000 new trees. The three new buildings will be built to LEED Platinum, feature bird-safe designs, solar panels to reduce grid energy by 23 percent and reclaimed water for most nonpotable uses, saving 9.5 million gallons of drinking water annually, according to James Morgensen, LinkedIn vice president of workplace services.
Vice Mayor Lisa Matichak lauded the company for making sure that all loading and unloading of private buses occurs on its property rather than city streets, but like some other council members, was disappointed that the project would only fund improvements to one side of the 237/Middlefield interchange.
The city will receive $42 million in one-time development fees, Morgensen added, and LinkedIn will pay a yearly property tax increase of $2.2 million. Local elementary and high school districts will receive an additional combined $5.1 million in property taxes annually, while Santa Clara County will receive $2.2. million and Foothill-DeAnza Community College District will get $1 million.
