Apple's new headquarters could wind up being a costly lesson in real estate: No matter how nice a place is, location matters.
People will pay and do anything to be in the best location, even pass on a chance to work for a company like Apple, according to Marcus Wohlsen at Wired.
Before Steve Jobs died, Apple's patriarch worked with architect Norman Foster to design the company's new Cupertino, California headquarters scheduled to be completed in 2016.
The development proposal is for a 175-acre campus in place of a former Hewlett Packard (HP) campus. The HP office will be torn down to make way for a new circular, Apple headquarters.
A 1,000-seat corporate auditorium, fitness center, offices and space for research and development will be included in the 2.8 million square foot building that Apple hopes will draw young talent.
But the power of that draw is in question.
"Increasingly, young tech talent wants to live and work in cities. As a result, the hottest tech companies, from Google to Twitter to Uber, are setting up shop in San Francisco, a long drive north of Silicon Valley, the traditional stronghold of the computer game," said Wohlsen.
There is major pressure for tech companies to recruit the next potential Jobs-level influence and so they are leaving for recruit-friendly metropolises. A study by IPO researcher CB Insights revealed that of the 26 tech startups valued at $1 billion or more, nine are based in San Francisco -- the same number in Silicon Valley. That never used to be the case.
"Even Facebook is part of this massive tech trend, recently moving its headquarters closer to San Francisco in part to maintain its hold on talent. To be sure, Silicon Valley will remain a tech hub, but the point remains: The balance is shifting. And Apple is putting all its eggs in a mile-wide spaceship-like basket."
Apple still has its own name behind it which could be enough to attract talent to the company in the future and Wohlsen pointed out that cities don't mix well with the culture.
The enclosure and chaos of a city are not what led to Apple simplicity and allure.
"In a way, a closed circle is an ideal metaphor for Apple's product philosophy: Our design is so seamlessly perfect you never have to leave our world. The question is whether walling itself off from the real world will one day lead to cracks in that perfection," he said.
