Budget for Apple HQ swells to $5 billion

Posted on April 8, 2013

The cost of the new spaceship-styled Apple Inc. headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. has skyrocketed to nearly $5 billion, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek story.

That’s about $2 billion more than company officials planned, and now there may be efforts to figure out a way to trim costs, as Apple (NYSE: AAPL) stock prices have declined and competition remains keen in the smartphone and tablet sectors.

Presumably, all is well at the much more modest $304 million Apple campus, which is being built in Northwest Austin near West Parmer Lane and Delcour Drive.

We’d love to tell you more about the status of that construction, but we’re forced to be satisfied with an occasional drive-by. Apple officials routinely refuse to comment about anything and everything related to the company, and in fact, Businessweek had to make do with citing unnamed sources in its story.

Here’s some of the more interesting details Businessweek reveals:

•The new Apple headquarters at present will cost significantly more than the new World Trade Center complex in New York, which has a price tag of $3.9 billion.
•Apple may be working with lead architect Foster + Partners to trim up to $1 billion from the ever-expanding budget.
•Site work should begin this summer and will take up to six months of round-the-clock excavation.
•The four-story circular design would encompass 2.8 million square feet and house 12,000 employees.
•One of the most expensive features of the building is the floor-to-ceiling concave glass panels, which are being imported from Germany.
•The expansive inner courtyard will be replete with orchards of apricot, olive and apple trees, along with hundreds of plant species.

Jan Buchholz, Austin Business Journal.