Apple's new 'spaceship' home wows one and all

Cupertino (United States)

THINGS change when a spaceship comes to town. Tourists stroll by, whipping out their iPhones to get a photo. New businesses move in. And real estate prices go up even more.

Apple's new home in Cupertino, California - the centrepiece being a US$5 billion, four-storey, 2.8 million-square-foot ring that can be seen from space and that locals call the spaceship - is still getting some final touches, and employees have just started to trickle in. The full squadron, about 12,000 people, will arrive in several months.

But the development of the headquarters, a 70-hectare area officially called Apple Park, has already helped transform the surrounding area.

In Sunnyvale, a town just across the street, 95 development projects are in the planning stages. The city manager, Deanna Santana, said she had never seen such action before. In Cupertino, a Main Street Cupertino living and dining complex opened in early 2016. This downtown enclave includes the Lofts, a 120-unit apartment community opening this autumn; small shops; and numerous r…