Apple's plans to build the so-called “Spaceship HQ” won't be finished until 2016, a year later than the company had planned. Apple had hoped to break ground on the campus in 2012, but a required environmental impact report might not be completed until June of 2013, pushing the groundbreaking out to as late as early 2014.
Apple Rendering for its Planned Cupertino HQ
Bloomberg uncovered the news in an update to its proposal to the city of Cupertino filed on November 14th. The updated plans include more underground parking spaces, three times the amount of landscaped ground, and the removal of a footbridge over a creek in one corner of the property.
The filing also utilizes the same architectural renderings that captivated the world when Steve Jobs first proposed the building plans to the Cupertino City Council. There were no major changes to the building itself, and Cupertino hasn't asked for any specific changes.
Another View
“They could conceivably break ground in 2013, but only if everything goes smoothly,” Cupertino City Manager David Brandt told Bloomberg. The city plans on posting the update to its website after Thanksgiving, but only after it has beefed up its server capacity to handle the deluge of traffic the update will bring from Apple's fans around the world.
Apple wants the new campus to handle its growing U.S. workforce, which includes software and hardware engineers, designers, purchasing managers, attorneys, the small army of accountants needed to count all of its money, and all of the other folks needed to design the products it mostly builds in China and Taiwan.
While it waits for the new campus, the company has been gobbling up office space throughout the Cupertino area to keep pace with its growth.