Apple Leases Sunnyvale Industrial Building Near Rumored Car Development Site

Apple has expanded its real estate holdings in Sunnyvale, California with the lease of a 96,000 square foot industrial property that formerly served as a Pepsi bottling plant, reports The Silicon Valley Business Journal. Apple inked a deal for the location in November, but news of the lease has just recently surfaced and it is not clear how long Apple has been at the location.

A property lease in Sunnyvale is notable because it is rumored to be the area where Apple is working on its secret car project. Apple has several known offices at a 7-building campus at North Wolfe Road and Central Expressway in Sunnyvale and one building at the location is suspected to be a shell company serving as a front for Apple's car development efforts.

sunnyvalepepsiplant

The former Pepsi bottling plant Apple now leases, via The Silicon Valley Business Journal

960 Kifer Road, where the former Pepsi bottling plant is located, is less than a mile away from the above-mentioned 7-building campus. According to The Silicon Valley Business Journal, it isn't known what the facility will be used for, but it is a "warehouse-type" industrial site that sits on 5 acres of land and has truck docks in the back.

City permits gave no clues about its use, as only a seismic upgrade was on file, suggesting Apple plans to use the building as is instead of redeveloping it. Apple has also previously leased an 80,000 square foot building at 1150-1170 Kifer Road, just down the street from the new location, and a 140,000 square foot building at 3689 Kifer Road, located across the street from the building at 1150 Kifer Road.

Apple is rumored to be taking on hundreds of employees to work on its car project, which could explain its rapid Bay Area expansion. Apple has also purchased a lot of space in San Jose, including an 86-acre piece of land where it can build a campus that's up to 4.5 million square feet.

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Top Rated Comments

Speedy Dingo Avatar
120 months ago
Apple Water confirmed. Why else hire an old Pepsi-Cola building? :p

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Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FSMBP Avatar
120 months ago
Jack of all trades, master of none.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MentalFloss Avatar
120 months ago
You know...I always wondered how Apple did so well (not perfect) when Tim Cook was a COO instead of CEO.
You mean as opposed to them now being nearly bankrupt with heavy losses each quarter?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AppleScruff1 Avatar
120 months ago

I would be very scared if Siri was the driver.
Asking her a question is scary enough.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CFreymarc Avatar
120 months ago
Wouldn't be surprised of they are taking this location due to the neighbor complains at the current Titan site. The building has been empty for almost a decade and is prime Valley real estate in the middle of a light industrial site. There is not residential around for almost a half mile. This gives plenty of noise buffer for exotic works. Also, Halted Specialties is not that far away and a great place to pick up off electronic surplus parts and such. Could become a gathering spot for the crew. Historically, this was ground zero for a lot of early semiconductor fabrication and integration. Nice to see the area still going state-of-the-art.
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iCar... I wonder if someone will reveal windshield size, door size, steering wheel, engines...probably made out of A11x chip that will eventually be used for ipad. I'm sure someone will reveal the navigation system leading us to our death.
Honestly I don't see much of any other Apple product architecture going into this. The Apple Watch was a totally new architecture with integration into iOS. The car, I'm sure they are looking at a totally different architecture and a the inevitable "CarKit" that will allow iOS apps integrated into whatever Titan manifests. We are dealing with above one amp here in product design. That's a totally different breed of electrical engineer from what is around Cupertino.
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iCar... I wonder if someone will reveal windshield size, door size, steering wheel, engines...probably made out of A11x chip that will eventually be used for ipad. I'm sure someone will reveal the navigation system leading us to our death.

EDIT: I gotta see how thin it will be...
I bet there are a half dozen red herrings that will leak in the next year to throw everyone off. Most will probably be concepts that didn't make the cut. Looking forward to thus rumor parade.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Boatboy24 Avatar
120 months ago
LOL...more like "turn left, siri!" "Okay, I'll go straight ahead."
"Here's what I found while searching the internet for 'turn left' ".
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)