Dive Brief:
- With its "spaceship" Apple Campus 2 project still under construction in Cupertino, CA, Apple has agreed to lease 777,000 square feet in Sunnyvale, CA, where it can accommodate another 4,000 workers, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
- The office complex — which reports have referred to as the company's "second spaceship" — is called the Central & Wolfe Campus and features three connected main buildings with green space, open courtyards, rooftop gardens and jogging and walking trails, according to owner Landbank’s website showcasing the property.
- Apple is also planning for a third campus site in San Jose, CA, the Mercury News reported, and is considering land and a building that could eventually accommodate 18,000 workers and eventually occupy 3.77 million square feet in San Jose.
Dive Insight:
"Apple is clearly staffing up for something else besides the iPhone to supplement its income," Rob Enderle, a technology sector analyst, told the Mercury News. "My guess is that it's probably a car."
The California Department of Motor Vehicles revealed to the Mercury News in September that the agency had met with Apple, rumored to be interested in self-driving cars, about the state's rules for testing autonomous vehicles on public streets.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports that now, the tech giant must decide whether to keep the original design for the space — which was designed by architecture company HOK — or modify the plans. A construction date has not yet been announced.
Apple's first "spaceship" campus project in Cupertino, CA, has been heralded as a project that "has raised the bar for construction standards." However, it has also faced some building complications, as it replaced Swedish construction giant Skanska and American commercial contractor DPR Construction on the project after a string of reported delays and cost overruns. The company broke ground on the project in 2014, but the completion date has been repeatedly pushed back.
Google has also been looking to expand into the San Jose area, according to the Mercury News, and David Vanoncini, senior vice president and managing partner with the San Jose office of commercial realty brokerage Kidder Mathews, doesn't see a down side.
"This technology boom is being led by well-known, highly profitable and very tangible corporations, as opposed to the dot-com boom, that was, on some levels, smoke and mirrors," Vanoncini said. "These are real companies, making real money, selling real products, with a real need for expansion."