In case there were any doubts about the city of Cupertino, Calif., being interested in Apple building its campus reboot there, city Mayor Gilbert Wong has put those fears to rest.
"Cupertino is ready for this," Wong said in a press conference held in Cupertino's City Hall lobby yesterday (video below). Wong followed up a reporter's question later on in the press conference, saying that there's "no chance we're saying no."
Apple's plans to build a new campus were detailed earlier this week by CEO Steve Jobs, who pitched the Cupertino City Council on constructing a building that would house 12,000 of the company's employees.
Apple's current Cupertino headquarters can only hold 2,800 employees, which has forced the company to fan out across other buildings throughout the city. Apple owns a 92-acre plot of land it purchased from Hewlett-Packard. There, the company intends to build its circular complex, which Jobs likened to a spaceship.
The project still has a ways to go before it's approved and construction begins. In the press conference, Wong noted that the project will be reviewed just like any other building, including a study on various environmental impacts. As part of the building, Apple has pledged to increase the number of trees on the lot by 60 percent, as well as increasing other landscaping by 350 percent. Following a successful approval next year, Wong said Apple can begin submitting building permits to later break ground on the project, with an estimated completion date of 2015.
"It is a major project. It's going to look like something similar to like the Pentagon. And this is something that's not going to be built overnight, but we're ready to accommodate," Wong said.
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