Sam Oliver
A rebound in construction of U.S. office space has been credited to technology companies such as Apple, as the iPhone maker prepares to build a massive new corporate headquarters in Cupertino, and also builds new operational facilities around the country.
Apple is joined by Facebook and Amazon in a profile on U.S. office development published on Friday by Bloomberg. It revealed that expansion by those technology companies has helped construction on new office space in the U.S. rebound from its lowest point in more than five decades.
Default rates on construction mortgages have steadily declined from their peak in 2010, but the beginnings of a rebound are in sight thanks to projects like Apple's 175-acre "spaceship" campus that is currently in the works. The four-story ring-shaped facility will feature 2.8 million square feet of office space and will hold more than 12,000 employees.
Apple's plans call for it to demolish about 2.65 million square feet of existing office and research and development buildings located on land that was formerly owned by PC maker Hewlett-Packard.
The news on how Apple is helping to bolster U.S. office development comes as Apple has begun the first work on its new nearly 700,000-square-foot data center facility in Prineville, Oreg. The Oregonian revealed on Friday that construction has started on the first $68 million phase of the facility, with land being cleared and flattened for one of the two 338,000-square-foot buildings.
The Prineville facility will aid Apple's iCloud service, and the company has vowed that hundreds of people will work on the project, and "dozens" will be employed there once it is complete.
As Apple's construction continues, Facebook is also plotting expansion to its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The social networking site plans to add a single-story building about 430,000 square feet in size that will house 2,800 engineers.
And Amazon also plans to begin construction in 2013 on a new building — the first of three that are planned. Together, they will give the online retailer an additional 3 million square feet of space.
John Southard, managing director of CBRE Econometric Advisors, told Bloomberg that the projects by Apple, Amazon and Facebook are a "surprising amount of construction, given the amount of space available in the market." Though he characterized the improvement driven by the companies as "gradual," he believes construction will continue to increase going forward.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
10 Comments
1. Numbers in stories like these are quite staggering 2. I wonder if Apple HQ has enough space to hold all corporate employees. They rent about 30 buildings apart from their current HQ which hold something like 12.000 employees. 3. I wonder if they will change the iOS Maps icon after they've moved to the newly build HQ
[quote name="PhilBoogie" url="/t/153562/apples-expansions-credited-with-boosting-us-office-development#post_2214807"]1. Numbers in stories like these are quite staggering 2. I wonder if Apple HQ has enough space to hold all corporate employees. They rent about 30 buildings apart from their current HQ which hold something like 12.000 employees. 3. I wonder if they will change the iOS Maps icon after they've moved to the newly build HQ[/quote] 2) I do wonder how much future growth they've planned. I also wonder when it'll be complete, when they'll move in, and if we'll get a video tour of the factuality. 3) I would have done it with my new Maps app even though the construction hasn't "started" the location and design are set.
2. I wonder if Apple HQ has enough space to hold all corporate employees. They rent about 30 buildings apart from their current HQ which hold something like 12.000 employees.
3. I wonder if they will change the iOS Maps icon after they've moved to the newly build HQ
2. Steve said they rent as much space in Cupertino and surrounding as is available, and they're still packed to the gills. That's why they're building the new campus to hold 13,000+ and designing the plan so that it can expand a little more after that, too. Additionally, they're keeping their old campus (Infinite Loop and the buildings across the street). So once the new place is built, they'll simply stop renting and use all Apple-owned buildings.
3. I can't imagine any other scenario.
3) I would have done it with my new Maps app even though the construction hasn't "started" the location and design are set.
I'm still hoping they manage to get those apartments in the corner and redesign the building to take advantage of the new space.
3) I would have done it with my new Maps app even though the construction hasn't "started" the location and design are set.
If I'm understanding your comment correctly, that when you search Apple, Maps should take you to the site of the new facility, that's beyond ridiculous. If you're conducting business with Apple and need to find the campus, you need to find the campus that exists today not the one that's going to exist years in the future. If however, you simply mean that the new site should also be labeled Apple, then as Emily Litella once said, "Never mind!"
And as others have pointed out, Apple plans to keep their old campus, but stop using buildings that they're currently renting. So once they move, that will put a glut of buildings on the market in Cupertino, probably depressing rental prices, but that could also be a good thing in that it can provide cheaper space for startups who want to be close to Apple. Since Apple's net number of employees in the area should increase substantially, that should also help the local economy although it could also overwhelm local schools.
[quote name="zoetmb" url="/t/153562/apples-expansions-credited-with-boosting-us-office-development#post_2215130"] If I'm understanding your comment correctly, that when you search Apple, Maps should take you to the site of the new facility, that's beyond ridiculous. If you're conducting business with Apple and need to find the campus, you need to find the campus that exists today not the one that's going to exist years in the future. If however, you simply mean that the new site should also be labeled Apple, then as Emily Litella once said, "Never mind!" And as others have pointed out, Apple plans to keep their old campus, but stop using buildings that they're currently renting. So once they move, that will put a glut of buildings on the market in Cupertino, probably depressing rental prices, but that could also be a good thing in that it can provide cheaper space for startups who want to be close to Apple. Since Apple's net number of employees in the area should increase substantially, that should also help the local economy although it could also overwhelm local schools. [/quote] The original point was about the icon, not the back end location, but the icon.