Apple Park estimated to cost $5 Billion to build

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“The ‘spaceship’ of Silicon Valley has landed in Cupertino, but the question remains: How much did it cost to build? Construction data and analytics startup BuildZoom estimated in October that the new Apple campus cost more than $1.1 billion, based on the building permits,” Seung Lee reports for The Mercury News. “But longtime Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone estimates that costs for the iPhone maker’s shiny new campus far exceeded BuildZoom’s estimate, and may be closer to $5 billion — or just about the cost of 5 million iPhone X’s.”

“Apple could not be reached for comment on the cost. Stone said the nearly $4 billion discrepancy between his new estimate and BuildZoom’s earlier figure for Apple Park’s construction cost highlights a common misunderstanding of how building permits work and what their purpose is,” Lee reports. “Building permits are just a preliminary road map to how much a construction project may cost before the first shovel is turned. They don’t include the costs for labor, overtime, additional materials and redesign, all of which add significantly to the final tab.”

“Apple Park’s exact construction costs will be factored into the final assessed property value, which has not yet been completed,” Lee reports. “The last time the Assessor’s Office released estimated Apple Park construction costs was September 2016, when it put the figure at $1.6 billion for costs up to January 1 of that year. But Stone now estimates the construction cost will likely be $5 billion. The Assessor’s Office said Apple Park’s final assessed value — the basis for the tax bill for the new campus — may be less than its final construction costs. That’s because certain materials and constructed goods may be valuable only to Apple and can’t factor into the assessed value, which also considers the fair market value of the property.”

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