Second Apple campus at Research Triangle Park delayed by up to four years

Work still hasn’t started on a second Apple campus some six years after the company announced the plan, and a new report says that work on the project has now been further delayed by “up to four years.”

That could mean a full decade between Apple’s announcement and construction work starting, with the opening date even further out …

Second Apple campus – the story so far

Plans for a full-scale second Apple campus were first announced by Apple at the beginning of 2018, with the location not revealed at the time.

The company plans to establish an Apple campus in a new location, which will initially house technical support for customers. The location of this new facility will be announced later in the year.

Research Triangle Park in North Carolina later emerged as the likely location, though it wasn’t until 2020 that Apple leased the building it intended to renovate (it had previously leased a portion of the building, but hadn’t continuously occupied even that section).

Apple has leased a prominent building in San Jose, California known as “Triangle Building.” Apple is said to have leased the entire 86,000-square-feet space, and has reportedly already started interior renovations.

Things went very quiet after that, aside from approval of Apple’s plans to renovate the MetLife Building some ten miles away.

Plans delayed by up to four years

Local site WRAL News reports that Apple has now told state officials that it will be delaying the start of the project.

Apple executives briefed state officials last week on its plans to move forward with one of the region’s biggest economic development projects. The company wants to delay the start of the project by up to four years after a review of its real estate, according to people familiar with Apple’s plans.

All involved are keen to stress that the plans do still remain in place – that this is a delay, not a cancellation.

“Apple has been operating in North Carolina for over two decades, and we’re deeply committed to growing our teams here,” Rachel Wolf Tulley, a company spokeswoman, said in a statement on Monday. “… We’re looking forward to developing our new campus in the coming years.”

Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement Monday that he’s spoken with executives at the company. “They emphasized their commitment to build this transformative campus here in North Carolina,” he said, adding that the project “will ultimately be among the company’s most significant campuses.”

North Carolina has committed to incentives worth up to $845M, provided Apple delivers on its various promises, which include average salaries of $187k for the new jobs created.

One of the likely reasons for the delay is the shift in working patterns since then, with fewer people working full-time in offices – though Apple has taken a harder line on this than many companies.

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