MS Accelerates Campus Expansion Plan

Microsoft said Thursday that it was pumping an additional $1 billion into its planned 15-20 year plan to expand the company's Redmond campus.

With the additional funds, about half of the project would now be completed in three years. Upon its completion, Microsoft would become one of the largest corporate campuses in the world.

A total of 14 new buildings would be added, seven of which are new and another seven purchased by Microsoft. Based on current plans, the new buildings would house an additional 12,000 employees. Microsoft said this is critical to the company's future growth and expanding portfolio of products.

"In the software industry, things move quickly," Microsoft senior vice president Brad Smith said at the site of Building 99, the first of the newly constructed office buildings. "We are a company with bold goals for innovative and pioneering technology. This plan provides us the space for the current and future talent who will help us achieve those goals."

Local and state politicians joined the announcement and called Microsoft's plans indicative of the success of the local economy as well. Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire credited Microsoft with making the entire region and its businesses competitive in the global marketplace.

However two local politicians, King County Executive Ron Sims and Redmond Mayor Rosemarie Ives, took the announcement as an opportunity to push for infrastructure improvements in the region to be able to handle the expected extra traffic.

"King County and its cities must continue to complement our beautiful natural resources with infrastructure and transportation solutions that deliver a quality of life and a business environment that help our major employers stay here," Sims told reporters.

Over the next three years, Microsoft plans to invest $35 million in transportation and infrastructure improvements within Redmond including improvements to streets, sewers, storm sewers and an overpass crossing Washington State Route 520, one of the access routes by Microsoft's campus.

Almost half of the company's 63,000 plus employees live and work in the Puget Sound area surrounding the Redmond campus, the company said.