Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) received their full set of building permits needed to build their spaceship campus on Wednesday. Now the company can start building their new headquarters.
Annual tax break reduction for Apple
On Tuesday evening, the council agreed to reduce the annual tax break for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 15 percent and formalized their approval for the project.
Orrin Mahoney (mayor of Cupertino) explained, “There will be short-term and long-term impacts from this new development. And as part of our negotiations, this change was just one way that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could continue to help us out in the long-term. This will give us some additional revenue, which will be nice to have. “
The tax adjustment could mean an extra $1.8 million for the city.
The new spaceship campus will be 176 acres and it will have the capacity to accommodate up to 12,000 employees. The campus include a large research facility, underground parking, and a 1,000-seat auditorium.
Apple’s spaceship campus buzz
The spaceship campus has been talked about for a while and it’s taken some time to get to this milestone. There were objections from local residents who didn’t want the structure built in their neighborhood. This prompted Peter Oppenheimer (chief financial officer for Apple) to send out brochures to residents to calm down their concerns.
The project is expected to be $2 billion over budget. The building is expected to be complete by 2015 or 2016.
In October, Oppenheimer shared the following with San Jose Mercury News: “At one point in the day you may be in offices on one side of the circle and find yourself on the other side later that day. We found that rectangles or squares or long buildings or buildings with more than four stories would inhibit collaboration…We wanted this to be a walkable building, and that’s why we eventually settled on a circle.”
The new campus will give the company more room for employees to conduct business.
