When you live in a technopolis — and Austinites, I’m afraid that you do — silly things like “economic downturn” and “financial unfeasibility” are ancillary concerns.
Despite a looming recession, a phrase for which every business writer should just go ahead and create a shortcut now, two tech companies with enormous presences in Austin are investing heavily in expansion in 2023. Just one week into the new year, Apple has filed projects totaling $240 million for an expansion of its north Austin campus, and Tesla has filed for projects estimated to total more than $700 million for improvements at Giga Texas.
With Meta balking on its big plan to occupy a 66-story skyscraper downtown two months ago, it stands to reason that perhaps Austin isn’t really Silicon Hills and that we just have no state income tax here, particularly in considering IBM’s ditching half its Austin office space and Amazon has major layoffs incoming.
But then came Apple off the top rope on Friday, January 6.
Capstone Phase Two AC09 and Capstone Phase Two AC07, as the projects are called, are a four-story and a five-story building, respectively, set for construction at 6900 Parmer Lane. Between the two buildings, Apple is adding 419,441 square-feet of office space. Construction begins for both buildings on September 30 of this year and have an estimated completion date of March 30, 2025.
MySA has reached out to Apple for comment.
Not to be outdone, Tesla is making an investment in “ground up and complete interior finish out of the EV manufacturing facility,” according to a filing by the company.
On Monday, January 9, four projects popped up at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the largest of which, titled Cell 1, looks to be a 693,093-square-foot facility. It’s also the most expensive on the docket, at an estimated cost of $368 million.
Other projects listed include Cathode, Cell Test Lab, and Drive Unit. Cell 1 begins construction on January 23 and is estimated to finish on February 12 of next year. Cell Test Lab begins exactly one week later and looks to wrap up on September 25, 2023. Cathode begins the same day and ends December 18 of this year. Drive Unit will begin on February 6 and end on January 15, 2024.
TDLR lists a design firm for every project filed. For the four Tesla projects, each one lists “Giga Texas” as the designer.
Tesla does not have a PR department.
