Tech-giant Apple has leased a further 69,031 sq ft of prime office space in Cupertino, California, according to a report from Silicon Valley corporate publication Business Journals.
The offices are most likely to be used temporarily whilst building work continues on Apple’s new ‘Spaceship Campus’, following substantial take up by the company in other areas around the state.
The makers of the iPhone and iPad have already moved to occupy over 315,000 sq ft of office space in Sunnyvale this January, as well as a 57,479 sq ft building at 5425 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara, and a 11,552 sq ft building in Cupertino.
According to annual reports, this represents an increase of 31% in Apple’s real estate portfolio in a single year, which now stands at approximately 17.3m sq ft of leased or owned office space.
The Apple report also details the company’s ownership of 1,077 acres across various locations as of September 2012, an increase of 84% on September 2011 when an ownership of only 584 acres was recorded.
The spending boom is likely to be due, in part, to the development of Apple’s state-of-the-art corporate campus in Cupertino; a spaceship design that is rumoured to house approximately 13,000 employees over 2.8m sq ft.
The ring-shaped property is set for completion in 2015 and – at 175 acres – will cover a larger area than the Pentagon.
Drawings released in August suggest that the walls will be wrapped in massive sheets of curved glass, topped with a series of over 20,000 photovoltaic solar panels to minimalize reliance on the national grid.
The site – between East Homestead Road and Interstate 280 – will be surrounded by wild landscaped gardens, with woodland in the interior courtyard and over six thousand different species of tree.
