Few companies are as closely identified with Silicon Valley as Google. In its quest for world domination, however, it is important to have outposts in other major centers, such as New York or Hong Kong. Or Beverley Hills. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the search engine giant has just signed a $6.3 million, eleven year lease on a 13,465-sq.-foot office space at 331 Foothill Road in Beverley Hills.

The site is to be renovated, and Google will be moving some of its operations there by the year’s end. This comes in addition to leases Google signed in January on three more properties around Venice, California, with a total space of 100,000 sq. feet.

What’s the fascination with Los Angeles and Beverley Hills? According to one source, many of the people who will be heading south are involved with YouTube. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that there are plans for Google to invest as much as $100 million in higher quality, low-cost content commissioned specifically for the internet.  If Rebecca Black can get almost 90 million hits for a minimum investment by her parents, and home movies of babies acting babyishly can score 15 million hits, there is no telling what professionally produced content can rake in. And with exclusive, original content, Google could charge higher rates for advertising.

Google has apparently been in talks with several LA talent agencies such as Creative Artists and William Morris, and the latest Beverley Hills acquisition is in the same building as the film and television production company Participant Media and Beverley Hills’s own cable channel. The neighborhood where the new office is located is also being promoted by the city as a new entertainment business district. It looks like Google just wants to be a part it.

Read More at NBC Bay Area.
Read More at the Hollywood Reporter.
Read More at the Wall Street Journal.