Apple to spend $80M on Campus 2 visitor center

Apple is estimating a $79.9 million financial outlay to build a planned visitor center with store and cafe at the currently under construction Campus 2 site, according to a recent permit filing.

As noted by BuildZoom, which spotted Apple's build permit last month, the cost does not include a $26 million estimate for an underground parking structure with 684 stalls, to be located below the 20,135-square-foot visitor center. In total, Apple is spending in excess of $106 million in construction and infrastructure costs on the project.

Apple is contracting most of the work out to BNBuilders at a cost of nearly $4,000 per square foot, which BuildZoom notes is more than double the $1,500 per square foot price for Campus 2 proper.

Plans for the forthcoming visitor center were unearthed last year. A detailed rendering and accompanying build plan describe a two-story glass-walled structure with space for a 10,114-square-foot store, 2,386-square-foot cafe and an observation deck with views of Campus 2's "spaceship" main office building. Apple tentatively pegs visitor center hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends.

After seeing early setbacks that led to budget overruns and contractor changes, Apple's Campus 2 project is back on track for a move-in later this year. Most recently, an aerial video showed the spaceship's massive curved glass panels being installed.

10 Comments

rogifan_old 725 comments · 9 Years

About 8 years ago

I moved into a new 10 story office building 3 years ago and in total I think they spent $115M, and it's a really nice building. Apple is spending almost that much on a visitor center. Wow. This is what Jony Ive said about the visitor center in that New Yorker profile:

Before we went outside, Ive showed me the work he’d done on staircases, and on the signage for employee security-card readers; we examined brightly colored polycarbonate panels that will help people establish where, beneath the loop, they have parked. Pinned to a wall were alternate versions of a visitor reception center, separate from the loop. Seen from above, both were modified rectangles. One, marked “Pill,” had half-circles at either end. The other ended in a more familiar Apple way, and was labelled “iPhone.” “We should be done, but we’re still redoing and redoing,” Ive said. He had recently introduced the iPhone option, partly for fear that a visitor approaching the Pill by its rounded ends might mistake it for an echo of the main building. He had also insisted—“a big fight”—on simplifying the control panels of the Mitsubishi elevators.

MacPro 19838 comments · 18 Years

About 8 years ago

Jony should have added a ride for visitors akin to Disney's AT&T Sphere at EPCOT (or whatever it's called today, I've not been for a while). Traveling through an animatronic history of Apple from the 1970's to the present on board a moving Apple Car! Walter Cronkite narration and all.

JinTech 1054 comments · 9 Years

About 8 years ago

So wait the new cafe will be open to the public? The one thing I absolutely miss about working at Apple was Cafe Mac. Hands down some of the best, most inexpensive cafeteria food I have ever eaten.