Apple expands ahead of new $1B campus

Apple is leasing more space in Austin, even before breaking ground on its future $1 billion campus.

The company confirmed Friday that it has a short-term lease for the entire Riata Corporate Park 8 building, located less than a mile from Apple's existing campus at West Parmer Lane and Delcour Drive. Apple also confirmed that it has leased a building at North Austin's Parmer Innovation Center.

According to an office market report from Aquila Commercial, the Riata building is roughly 93,700 square feet. Commercial real estate database CoStar also confirmed that the company is estimating an August move in.

Apple did not confirm which building the company leased at the Parmer Innovation Center. The business park is located near Harris Ridge Boulevard and East Parmer Lane.

Sam Tenenbaum, a market economist for CoStar, said Apple has made an effort to lease a handful of buildings in and around the company's current campus.

"I think it signals that Apple really does need more space and their campus can’t come soon enough," Tenenbaum said. "It remains to be seen what the company does with their leased space once the new campus opens, but for now, Apple appears to be growing and hiring aggressively."

Riata Corporate Park, which is less than a mile from Apple's existing Austin campus, is an office complex that includes onsite gyms, rotating food trucks and jogging trails.

Apple also owns Riata Crossing North, a neighboring four-building office complex the company bought in 2016.

The short-term leases come two years before Apple plans to open its $1 billion corporate campus, which initially will employ up to 5,000 people. Site preparation is scheduled to start this year, and the company expects to open its doors in 2021.

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The new facility — which will be less than a mile from Apple’s Parmer Lane campus — eventually could expand to accommodate up to 15,000 workers. Apple said in December that it employs roughly 6,200 people in Austin, and counting contractors, its Austin workforce numbers are about 7,000.

In December, Williamson County leaders unanimously approved a taxpayer-funded incentive package for Apple that could be worth up to $16 million. Apple is also in line to get up to $25 million in incentives payments from the state-run Texas Enterprise Fund.

The new Austin campus is part of a wider Apple expansion that will see the tech giant build new facilities in Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles with "over 1,000 employees" each, and “hundreds of new jobs” in New York, Pittsburgh, Boulder, Colo., Boston and Portland, Ore., the company said in December. None of those facilities will be as big as the new Austin campus.

Charisse Bodisch of the Austin Chamber of Commerce applauded Apple's decision to expand in the Austin region.

"(The chamber) has enjoyed a long relationship with Apple since its first entry into our community, and we are excited to see the company continue to bring new job opportunities and investment into our region," Bodisch said.

In addition to its existing Parmer campus, Apple has a smaller operation in Southwest Austin, at the Capital Ridge office building near Loop 360 and Bee Cave Road. Apple has had a presence in Austin since 1992.

The company has said Austin is its second-largest hub after its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.