Cupertino Approves New Apple Spaceship HQ 172
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."
Re:but (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Re:Apple has JUMPED THE SHARK (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the ticket price for the building is about $5 billion, it may rise as the project goes ahead -- there's lots of custom curved glass panels and such involved. With 14,000 workers expected to use the building that works out at about 350,000 dollars each. Office space in Cupertino leases at about $35/sq. ft./year so for the proposed upfront cost they could lease 500 square feet for each employee for twenty years and not have to pay for the structural maintenance, landscaping etc.
It's a pretty way to use up money, I suppose.
Re:Wow. (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple makes a huge profit margin and pays very little tax. There's no reason at all why society benefits from giving them a rebate they really don't need; in fact it hurts society by increasing tax on others. The only reason they can have a rebate is that they've got big enough they can threaten municipalities with oblivion if they leave which is a pretty shitty situation imo.