Google has signed a contract on a building in New York City, moving beyond its home base in Mountain View, Calif., the New York Times reported.

The company is preparing to purchase a home in the Big Apple at 111 Eighth Ave. for $1.9 billion. Google's East Coast headquarters already occupies 500,000 square feet in the property. Located in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, the 15-story, 2.9-million-square-foot building takes up an entire city block and is one of the largest office buildings in Manhattan.

Among Google's potential tenants are Nike, Barnes & Noble, and WebMD. The Times said 111 Eighth Ave. was built in 1932 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which sold the property in 1998. Telecommunications companies such as Sprint and Verizon now take up about a third of the building's space.

If the deal goes through, it will be the single biggest real estate sale this year. The building went on the market in September. According to the Times, Google beat out "a dozen bidders" for the keys to the property by promising to close the deal by the end of 2010. Although the end of the year is quickly approaching, it's unlikely that it will fall through as Google has signed a binding contract and put down a sizable deposit.

Ownership of the space is currently split between three different groups. A spokesperson from Google declined to comment on the topic.