Apple Inks 382K SF Office Lease in Sunnyvale

Apple has signed a lease for a newly built office campus in Sunnyvale, CA, bringing the tech giant’s footprint in the city to more than 800K SF.

Apple’s lease secures both buildings of developer and owner Jay Paul Co.’s new Mathilda Commons office complex, which features two four-story Class A buildings encompassing 382,500 SF.

Apple occupies two other buildings, owned by Kilroy Realty and totaling about 425,000 SF in Sunnyvale, also on North Matilda Ave. The Kilroy buildings and the new Mathilda Commons complex are about eight miles from Apple’s new HQ in Cupertino, CA.

Jay Paul began the Mathilda Commons project in 2019 with a $150M construction loan from US Bank. Construction work was finished last September. The office campus boasts 15-foot floor heights, a 15,377 SF fitness center, a 9.704 SF rooftop terrace and a four-story parking structure.

The new office park also offers an amenity package with health and wellness features including MERV 15 air filters and touchless entries and access.

Last month, Apple abruptly suspended its requirement that employees be in the office at least three days a week, citing a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.

The policy reversal also was a concession to push back from thousands of Apple workers after the return-to-office rule was put into effect earlier in May, GlobeSt.com reported.

A group calling itself Apple Together published a letter to the tech giant’s executive team urging a more flexible work schedule that emphasizes remote collaboration and eliminates the need for workers to commute. According to a report in The New York Times, one of Apple’s top artificial intelligence engineers resigned this month because of the company’s office-return policy.

Apple said in a note to employees on Tuesday that it would start a “pilot program” to bring some workers back to the office for two days a week, but anyone in that program who felt “uncomfortable coming into the office” would have the “option to work remotely,” the Times reported. 

Apple opened its new $5B headquarters in Cupertino in 2019, but the facility has largely been unused during the pandemic.

Bay area properties have had a 16% office vacancy rate as tech companies have vacillated over their return-to-office policies, with vacancies in Sunnyvale at about 19%. Life science leases currently are driving the office market in the area.