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More than two years after Apple announced plans to invest over $1 billion in North Carolina with over half of that investment going towards a new engineering and research center in the Research Triangle area of Raleigh and Durham, the company has finally filed development plans for the first phase with local authorities.

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

As shared by the Triangle Business Journal, the 41-acre initial phase at Research Triangle Park will include six buildings and a parking garage totaling 700,000 square feet of office space, 190,000 square feet of accessory space, and almost 3,000 parking spaces.

Among the structures in the first phase are three office buildings with the largest coming in at around 242,000 square feet and the other two measuring just over 230,000 square feet each. All three buildings are listed as having heights of 73 feet.

Three smaller accessory buildings will join a parking garage for the initial phase, which does not yet have a disclosed starting date for construction. A starting date does appear to be close, however, as Apple has begun some initial site preparations and is moving forward on obtaining various approvals.

While this initial phase covers 41 acres, Apple owns a total of 281 acres at the site and the company's filed plans allude to future phases. Apple had said in its announcement about the North Carolina investment that it will eventually create at least 3,000 new jobs in "machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and other cutting-edge fields" with average salaries ultimately approaching $200,000.

At full buildout, Apple's Research Triangle Park campus is likely to become one of the company's largest employment centers in the United States after its Silicon Valley headquarters area and a major existing campus in Austin, Texas, that is itself seeing significant investment and expansion. Other major Apple employment centers in the U.S. include Southern California, the Seattle area, and New York City.

As Apple prepares to construct its major new campus in Research Triangle Park, the company has already been building up its presence in the region with temporary space, headlined by a takeover of one building of a three-building complex in neighboring Cary that had been built for insurance company MetLife.

Amid the rise in remote work, MetLife was recently able to consolidate operations into two buildings of the complex, freeing up the third to be used by Apple. Apple has also been working to acquire additional temporary space in the area as it will be several more years before its own campus is ready.

Article Link: First Phase of Apple's New North Carolina Campus Will Total 900,000 Square Feet
 
Oh great, two huge motorways near by but no public transit, so all the people who work there have to use their cars to get there. Also the 3000 parking spaces will need ~390,000 sqft, which is more than 50 % of the planned office space. And people call this waste of space freedom.
 
Man I come to the office every day, because I just like to, but my office (which is also in RTP) is so deserted that today, at nearly 11am on a Friday, I have not seen one single other human. What are we doing building huge campuses in this day and age?
Outdated culture. Perfect for this location, by the sound of this thread.
 
Oh great, two huge motorways near by but no public transit, so all the people who work there have to use their cars to get there. Also the 3000 parking spaces will need ~390,000 sqft, which is more than 50 % of the planned office space. And people call this waste of space freedom.
If that's the case, I wonder if it'll be a multi-level parking garage? That'll at least save a bit on the footprint.

As for (lack of) public transit, hopefully, Apple could lobby the appropriate local agencies/businesses to implement it. I've heard news stories over the years of Apple improving the area around building they get. So helping implement mass transit isn't totally out of the realm of possibility. Example (old, but still…): https://appleinsider.com/articles/0...million_on_chicago_subway_station_renovations

I like the quote:

The company plans to open a retail store adjacent to the station, and is said to believe improving the look and quality of the surrounding neighborhood will be a benefit to the "signature location" store it is expected to open next year.
 
If that's the case, I wonder if it'll be a multi-level parking garage? That'll at least save a bit on the footprint.

As for (lack of) public transit, hopefully, Apple could lobby the appropriate local agencies/businesses to implement it. I've heard news stories over the years of Apple improving the area around building they get. So helping implement mass transit isn't totally out of the realm of possibility. Example (old, but still…): https://appleinsider.com/articles/0...million_on_chicago_subway_station_renovations

I like the quote:
They looked into light rail close by. It did not go forward because of potential disruption of care for patients at Duke Hospital. Maybe Tim and Eddy can convince the University and Hospital otherwise
 
What's the criteria these businesses use to pick a location I often wonder. Taxes? Education of the population and skillset available? Ease of sourcing certain things?
 
Oh great, two huge motorways near by but no public transit, so all the people who work there have to use their cars to get there. Also the 3000 parking spaces will need ~390,000 sqft, which is more than 50 % of the planned office space. And people call this waste of space freedom.

I think it'll be mostly work-from-home 😁

But yeah, the U.S. is very car-centric in general, but in the NC suburbs, even more so. Many places entirely without sidewalks. You have to have a car to even function there.
 
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Oh great, two huge motorways near by but no public transit, so all the people who work there have to use their cars to get there. Also the 3000 parking spaces will need ~390,000 sqft, which is more than 50 % of the planned office space. And people call this waste of space freedom.
I totally agree with you. There still is no thought of transit in these suburban clusters.
 
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I totally agree with you. There still is no thought of transit in these suburban clusters.

I suspect there's substantial thought. We here seem to be the ones not giving it much thought. For example, one of us thought about only a 2-dimensional parking lot to eat up much of the space. The math appeared right but approx halve the space by adding only one layer of parking above or below and about quarter it with 4 levels of parking.

Besides a parking tower, they could build underground parking so that the entire surface is available for working space and/or have multiple floors of working space and multiple floors of above & below ground parking leaving most of the land free as greenspace.

I suspect people who can flesh out the intricacies of building Macs, iPhones, iPads etc have the brainpower to put some good planning into much simpler construction of office + parking space... and/or are smart enough to hire teams of people who specialize in such creations.
 
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