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Cupertino Approves New Apple Spaceship HQ
mrspoonsi writes with news that Apple's plan to raze the old HP headquarters and replace it with some kind of space ship is moving forward. From the article: "A little over two years since Steve Jobs presented his case for it and after the occasional setback, the Cupertino City Council has finally given Apple full approval to go ahead with its futuristic campus. In exchange, Apple has agreed to fork over more money to the city in the form of a reduced sales tax rebate — going forward, Cupertino will only give back 35 percent sales tax instead of the 50 percent it had previously. Indeed, as soon as Apple gets its final permits some time today, it can begin demolishing the former HP headquarters and start building its own."
"Under the new agreement, that rebate has been reduced to 35 percent, which based on 2012 tax revenues would mean the residents of Cupertino will pay Apple -- which recorded net sales of $156.5 billion during the last fiscal year, and has a cash hoard estimated at $100 billion -- only $4.4 million to stick around. It would have been $6.2 million under the old agreement. That's an extra $1.8 million for Cupertino, a city with only $51.4 million in projected general fund revenues this year, according to figures reported in the Los Angeles Times."
Really Apple Cupertino gave you a tax break when things where not going well for you. Now you are doing well you are still getting a 4.4 million dollar kickback! Come one and just pay your taxes. You would increase the general fund by around 8%.
AKA just do the right thing.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Here's a presentation by Steve Jobs from a couple years ago showing the initial plans for the spaceship campus. According to the video title it's apparently the last recorded Jobs video footage. Good luck to Apple finishing the building during the following years, it's certainly a cool plan.
Sign that a company is jumping or is about to jump the shark: Build a huge lavish HQ.
Although, Google didn't mind when SGI did it.. they got a great deal on the real estate.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
It is the pentagon, but thinner and with rounded corners.
The voters of Cupertino think so? Not sure how else on would determine worth. I've lived in the bay area since 1995. Cupertino has gone from a nice suburb to a VERY wealthy suburb in that time. There's also tourism of all things. I'm not kidding. Tourists actually come to Cupertino just to stand in front of the sign at the Apple campus (the current one) and have their picture taken. Oh and there's an apple store there. Open to the public. On the apple campus. I would assume the sales tax collected there also goes to Cupertino.
These sorta tax deals always sound ridiculous. Long term though they often play out quite well to the hosting city. Microsoft has a tax deal with the city of Redmond. The city I live in, Mountain View, has given Google all sorts of incentives. It's hard to argue with success.
They are building a space ship so they can "fly away" if the city doesn't cooperate. Read the bloody article!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Here in the UK we cut out the middleman, and just buy these flying saucer tech headquarters directly from taxpayers' money:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Communications_Headquarters
Then they spy on us.
Might they move a few hundred meters across city lines to save $4 million X 20 years = $80 million. Yes!
This is very visible where I live, in Bryan / College Station, Texas. A large portion of both cities is within a mile of the border between them. Driving through the area, it's obvious which city has traditionally been friendly to businesses and which hasn't. The College Station side has new towers being built a couple hundred feet from the empty, decaying buildings in Bryan. A few years ago Bryan figured it out and is now attracting new investment. The downtown Bryan area has switched from hookers and gangs to restaurants and boutiques, but most of the city is still suffering from the fact that businesses preferred College Station for so many years.
The actual design of the building is beautiful and marvelous.
But I have to say that the entire design of the campus is a little disappointing. The buildings on campus are completely isolated from the rest of the city of Cupertino. The campus will be separated by a new security wall/fence surrounding the perimeter that will prevent all unauthorized entry, and most of the buildings will be hidden behind substantial landscaping. The plan also demolishes a city street that will disturb local automotive and bicycle routes.
Apple workers will get to appreciate the beauty of the architecture, and the calmness of the natural park-like setting, but the public will have to gaze from a distance.
I think Apple had a chance here to integrate the campus more closely with the city, and the city had an opportunity to ask for more of a community feeling than an ivory tower feeling. What if the park-like portions of the campus were an actual public park? The public could appreciate the architectural wonder and feel that the campus was at least a little bit a part of their city. What if the campus had more walking-friendly routes to and from the rest of the city, to encourage interaction between workers and local businesses? Facebook did this, by basically buying a little mini-city (http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/Inside+Facebook%27s+headquarters/G3949) which integrates work and life elements. You'd get a better city, quite frankly.
what's the rationale behind giving them benefits? would they move away if they didn't? unlikely, really.
Actually it would be relatively easy for Apple to relocate. They don't have to go across the country though they probably could if needed. They could just go to the next town over. The rationale is that some tax revenue is better than no tax revenue. Furthermore there is additional tax and income benefit to other local businesses like restaurants, hotels, etc.
Exactly. Where else in the USA could they possibly find a lower cost of living?
Not really a big consideration. As long as the employees can get to work the company doesn't really need to care much. The company gets tax benefits because if Apple moves out of Cupertino (which they easily could do) then Cupertino gets zero tax revenue and might even lose additional spillover revenues from restaurants, hotels, etc. Last time I checked some revenue is better than no revenue.