Google plans to move its downtown Portland office into the historic Meier & Frank Building next year, occupying two floors and making room for further growth.

Google has had a Portland office since 2010 when it bought an Oregon software company called Instantiations.

It’s currently in the old Wells Fargo Building on Southwest Sixth Office, where more than 80 employees work on its Chrome web browser, the Google Nest connected home, finance, marketing and entrepreneurial projects like the small business initiative Stride.

The Meier & Frank Building, which looks out on Pioneer Courthouse Square, housed the iconic Portland department store from 1909 until 2017. It’s now home to a variety of organizations, including The Nines hotel, Japanese department store Muji and an Oregon State University satellite campus.

Though Oregon has no big homegrown tech companies of its own, the state has long been an outpost for prominent technology companies based elsewhere on the West Coast. The state is attractive because of its proximity to the big tech hubs in the Bay Area and Seattle and because of a comparatively low cost of doing business.

Intel’s largest and most advanced operations are in Washington County, where the company employs 20,000, and Apple has engineering offices in Hillsboro, Vancouver and Southeast Portland. Online marketplace eBay has an engineering office near Portland State.

Amazon occupies the former Oregonian building on Southwest Broadway and this past summer summer began expanding into 85,000 square feet in the new Broadway Tower across from its current office.

Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook also operate large data centers in the more rural communities of The Dalles, Morrow County and Prineville.

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699