Apple thought to be seeking vast expanses of office space in Seattle
Real estate companies in the Pacific Northwest are allegedly "buzzing" that a large California business, presumably Apple, is eyeing Seattle for potential expansion.
Citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, GeekWire on Friday claimed that Apple may be seeking hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space, accommodating up to 2,300 workers. Sites identified as interesting to the unnamed California company are the Centre 425 building, the 929 Office Tower, and the Lincoln Square expansion tower, all under construction.
It's not clear why Apple would want a massive presence in Seattle. While Apple just purchased machine learning startup Turi, located in the area, that firm already has office space and staff could easily be relocated to existing Apple offices in the region with room to spare.
After Apple purchased cloud computing company Union Bay Networks in 2014, it set up a temporary office space, ultimately moving into a larger venue in downtown Seattle. Apple currently leases about 30,000 square feet in Seattle, suitable for around 200 employees and support for same.
LinkedIn profile checks show only about 85 Apple workers in the area not tied to retail operations, and that includes some (but not all) of the people associated with Turi. Additionally, AppleInsider has been told that the Apple office space is improved and ready for employee move-in, and has been for some time, yet remains mostly empty.
A Seattle space would put Apple engineers closer to large data centers and large hubs for cloud-based computing. However, even that attraction is outweighed somewhat by Apple's own data centers in the U.S., with facilities in Newark, California; Reno, Nevada; Maiden, North Carolina; and Prineville, Oregon.
Apple's new Silicon Valley headquarters is nearing completion, which will house 12,000 just in the main building after the completion of Phase 1. Phase 2 will add additional workspace, as well as a small data center.
Citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, GeekWire on Friday claimed that Apple may be seeking hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space, accommodating up to 2,300 workers. Sites identified as interesting to the unnamed California company are the Centre 425 building, the 929 Office Tower, and the Lincoln Square expansion tower, all under construction.
It's not clear why Apple would want a massive presence in Seattle. While Apple just purchased machine learning startup Turi, located in the area, that firm already has office space and staff could easily be relocated to existing Apple offices in the region with room to spare.
After Apple purchased cloud computing company Union Bay Networks in 2014, it set up a temporary office space, ultimately moving into a larger venue in downtown Seattle. Apple currently leases about 30,000 square feet in Seattle, suitable for around 200 employees and support for same.
LinkedIn profile checks show only about 85 Apple workers in the area not tied to retail operations, and that includes some (but not all) of the people associated with Turi. Additionally, AppleInsider has been told that the Apple office space is improved and ready for employee move-in, and has been for some time, yet remains mostly empty.
A Seattle space would put Apple engineers closer to large data centers and large hubs for cloud-based computing. However, even that attraction is outweighed somewhat by Apple's own data centers in the U.S., with facilities in Newark, California; Reno, Nevada; Maiden, North Carolina; and Prineville, Oregon.
Apple's new Silicon Valley headquarters is nearing completion, which will house 12,000 just in the main building after the completion of Phase 1. Phase 2 will add additional workspace, as well as a small data center.
Comments
What if it turns out that it is not Apple? Does the Seattle Office market Tank? Perhaps it is time to short the stocks related to this?
I've seen all this before. Every development gets embiggened by the selling/letting agent by them saying that a certain large company is also interested in the property so sign up now or it will be gone.
Now its Apple's turn to be mentioned with almost every property.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_(global_health_organization)
As far as relocating workers, WA doesn't have an income tax, which can benefit the workers. Even though Seattle real estate is expensive, SF Bay Area is beyond expensive. Apple should have built dormitories for workers in the new building since Cupertino housing is very expensive as well.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/08/10/the-typical-home-in-san-jose-now-costs-more-than-1-million/
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one
http://discovermagazine.com/2012/extreme-earth/01-big-one-earthquake-could-devastate-pacific-northwest
I doubt that is how they go about it though; I would imagine the shell companies lease smaller facilities to avoid the realtor's "apple tax."
there's a lot of tech talent to poach up there due to microsoft, and amazon. facebook and google also have offices up there. great computer science program at UW as well. people who live up there tend to want to stay up there and the cost of living, although high, is still quite a bit less than that of silicon valley. apple moving up there is exactly the same reason why under armour is making a huge move to set up shop in portland as well. there's nike, adidas usa, columbia all within shouting distance. All about going to where the talent is.