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Apple Pauses Work on Planned North Carolina Campus

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Apple is delaying plans for a major new campus located in North Carolina, reports the Triangle Business Journal. Back in 2021, Apple said it would invest more than $1 billion in North Carolina, a project that included a new engineering and research center in the Research Triangle area of Raleigh and Durham.

apple_rtp_land.jpg
Assemblage of seven properties in Research Triangle Park owned by Apple​

A limited amount of progress on the campus has been made since the announcement, and Apple has not provided updates on construction until now. Apple told Triangle Business Journal that it has paused work on the campus, and it is working with North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and the North Carolina Department of Commerce to extend the project's timeline by four years.

No reason was given for the delay, but Apple said that it is still committed to building in North Carolina.
Apple has been operating in North Carolina for over two decades. And we're deeply committed to growing our teams here. In the last three years, we've added more than 600 people to our team in Raleigh, and we're looking forward to developing our new campus in the coming years.
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Apple last year filed development plans for the first phase of construction, but the specific timeline for the project has never been clear. Apple's plans for Research Triangle Park include six buildings and a parking garage totaling 700,000 square feet of office space, 190,000 square feet of accessory space, and close to 3,000 parking spaces spanning 41 acres.

Apple owns 281 acres of land in the area where it plans to build its campus, so there could ultimately be several phases of construction. As it prepares to build the NC research center, Apple is leasing more than 200,000 square feet of office space in Cary, North Carolina.

Article Link: Apple Pauses Work on Planned North Carolina Campus
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/24/apple-north-carolina-campus-paused/
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jz0309 said:
when business conditions change, plans change ...
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Yes, and since 2021, we've seen pretty drastic changes to remote work strategies, the economy has been up and down, costs of materials are up, and interest rates are not as friendly as they once were. Granted, Apple has a lot of cash to build, but companies often borrow the money anyway.
 
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These are the kinds of things you put a pause on when it’s clear certain economic realities make that popping sound in the next 1-3 years…

Google paused another building at their Kirkland area in April. Many other corporate giants have been scaling back their real estate expansions and holdings.
 
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Darmok N Jalad said:
Yes, and since 2021, we've seen pretty drastic changes to remote work strategies, the economy has been up and down, costs of materials are up, and interest rates are not as friendly as they once were. Granted, Apple has a lot of cash to build, but companies often borrow the money anyway.
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A recent report from my city said that 42 % of the office space remains empty, an all-time high since the figure was around 18 % in 2019. The world won't be the same for a while; the company I work for started to cut on work-from-home days and everyone is complaining. I do like going to the office, but I also understand those who don't.
 
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As someone that lives and works in Research Triangle Park, this is phenomenal news. I hope they abandon this area completely. We can’t sustain all the influx of people moving here and we don’t want to decimate native habitat and native wildlife to build the roads, housing, and classrooms required to support them and all the other companies that would build here to leech off their talent. As a local, the cost of living and congestion getting bad enough. We were doing fine before them and we’ll continue to thrive without them.
 
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dcingie said:
As someone that lives and works in Research Triangle Park, this is phenomenal news. I hope they abandon this area completely. We can’t sustain all the influx of people moving here and we don’t want to decimate native habitat and native wildlife to build the roads, housing, and classrooms required to support them and all the other companies that would build here to leech off their talent. As a local, the cost of living and congestion getting bad enough. We were doing fine before them and we’ll continue to thrive without them.
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Who is this we?
 
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Darmok N Jalad said:
Yes, and since 2021, we've seen pretty drastic changes to remote work strategies, the economy has been up and down, costs of materials are up, and interest rates are not as friendly as they once were. Granted, Apple has a lot of cash to build, but companies often borrow the money anyway.


2021, the tides of change. Remote work, the chameleon shifting. The economy, a wild stallion. The cliffs of cost, towering while the wells of interest, drying. Apple, with dragons' hoard, yet the journey funded by borrowed wings.
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^ Fixed it ^
 
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There are many companies in the tech sector moving into the triangle. They need to first get Amp Housing so workers will work within the location of their dev. NC has many protected lands in the area. They are always changing regulations on how and where they can and cannot build. Affordable hosing is a big problem for Tringale and surrounding areas.
 
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Morod said:
Just a thought. Maybe Apple is no longrt getting the top engineers anymore. Used to be Apple was a great place to work. Now that engineering is boiling down to "How can we make it thinner?", an Apple campus doesn't hold the cachet it once did.
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Maybe Apple has realized that top talent might tend to not want to work in an office at all. If top talent is told they need to they've got the option to go work elsewhere.
 
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segfaultdotorg said:
Cancel culture strikes again. Sad!
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Please explain what that means. Are you sad that it was delayed due to economic conditions? What was cancelled? What is your idea of culture? Is sad compatible to the death of a relative, or a bad topping on a sandwich?

Are you an Apple executive that makes decisions about billions in investment? Just curious.
 
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dcingie said:
As someone that lives and works in Research Triangle Park, this is phenomenal news. I hope they abandon this area completely. We can’t sustain all the influx of people moving here and we don’t want to decimate native habitat and native wildlife to build the roads, housing, and classrooms required to support them and all the other companies that would build here to leech off their talent. As a local, the cost of living and congestion getting bad enough. We were doing fine before them and we’ll continue to thrive without them.
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Speak for yourself. I have lived in the Triangle for fifty years. Went to UNC-Chapel Hill and spent my career at IBM in Research Triangle Park. I think Apple's long term investment in this area is a terrific boon, especially now that IBM's presence is but a shadow of what it once was. There are three very fine universities (UNC-CH, Duke, and NC State) within 10-15 miles of RTP. Tim Cook and Jeff Williams have strong roots here as well, having spent roughly the first decade of their careers at IBM-RTP.
 
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Why do I want to go to an office? My daughters are 7 and 9. I get to see them grow up. It’s time I won’t get back. They’ll never be little again. Instead of brake lights on I-75 every day, I see their faces and see them on or off the school bus taking turns with my wife.

We cut down to one car. Immediately that’s thousands of dollars a year saved. I eat my lunches from affordable Costco and Aldi ingredients. Sometimes I end work at 3pm or work late into the evening because I’m home anyway.

My closest colleague is in Toronto. My boss is in London. It makes no difference if I work from my house… closest office is 2 hours away and it’s full of tax accountants. I’m a software engineer, there’s nobody writing Swift in that building.

Unemployment in this field is below 1%. Companies aren’t in any position to call highly skilled workers back.
 
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GeoStructural said:
A recent report from my city said that 42 % of the office space remains empty, an all-time high since the figure was around 18 % in 2019. The world won't be the same for a while; the company I work for started to cut on work-from-home days and everyone is complaining. I do like going to the office, but I also understand those who don't.
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Office space will never return to the pre pandemic normal. I have one office property that has never been below 92% occupancy and today I can’t put the lease low enough.
 
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