“Apple Inc. has landed its second spaceship — this time, in Sunnyvale — in a massive deal that exemplifies a new era in Silicon Valley real estate and crystalizes Apple’s enormous growth trajectory outside of its Cupertino stronghold,” Nathan Donato-Weinstein reports for Silicon Valley Business Journal.
“The iPhone maker has sealed a deal for Landbank Investments LLC’s planned Central & Wolfe campus — a curvaceous, 777,000-square-foot project at Central Expressway and Wolfe Road that’s expected to look like nothing else ever attempted in Silicon Valley,” Donato-Weinstein reports. “The Silicon Valley Business Journal and The Registry both reported last month that the developer and tech giant were in negotiations. But this week, sources with knowledge of the transaction confirmed to me that the deal is completed. Terms of the deal couldn’t immediately be learned, but I’m led to believe that Apple has leased, not purchased, the project. It’s unknown when it could start construction.”
“The transaction is another sign — as if you need any more — of Apple’s tremendous expansion, potentially providing enough room for more than 3,000 workers,” Donato-Weinstein reports. “The 18-acre campus, approved last year, is slated to transform a collection of nine buildings erected in the 1960s and ’70s — the golden age of Silicon Valley’s tilt-up construction era — into a striking structure that defies easy description. Indeed, the project seems perhaps a perfect fit for Apple, recalling some of the curvy design cues on its under-construction ‘spaceship’ Apple Campus 2, about five miles south.”
“One caveat: It’s unclear whether the project will be built according to that design, from architecture firm HOK, or if Apple and Landbank will want to modify it in some way,” Donato-Weinstein reports. “At this time there’s no indication it will change substantially, and indeed Landbank has made the signature look a key selling point, with a website that highlights the out-of-the-box design [notanotherbox.com].”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Jetsons-esque.
Are you sure Disney didn’t buy it? From the air, it looks more like Mickey Mouse than a spaceship…
deadmau5
The ugly one-story buildings at this site currently have signage saying “NotAnotherBox.com” on prominent display.
It’s a bit too Guggenheim for my tastes.
I note that they say Apple is leasing this property, so calling it another Apple Spaceship is a bit much. Apple leases a lot of buildings in Silicon Valley to handle its overflowing workload.
Now they will have to build a 5-mile bullet train shuttle(maybe underground) to connect the two campuses.
Since it’s pocket change, just buy the property, tear it all down and land a 2nd spaceship there.
Better yet, just build a 25 acre tsunami proof floating barge in shape of an Apple off the coast so you don’t have to pay property taxes to offset the helicopters flying the employees in every day.