Apple’s new Spaceship campus set to open in 2016 as project experiences delays

Apple’s plans for its new 2.8 million square foot ‘Spaceship’ campus, first presented by Steve Jobs to the Cupertino City Council in 2011, have been hit by a small delay, requiring the company to amend its schedule and look to open its new headquarters in mid-2016.

Bloomberg reports that Apple — which had originally planned to open in 2015 — filed a revised timetable with the City of Cupertino on November 14, adapting its development timetable. The company has seen delays affect the city’s environmental impact report (which monitors traffic, noise, air quality levels and allows local residents to comment on its development) and could be set back from a late-2012 completion to June 2013.

This would mean Apple would not be able to start work until 2014, pushing back a potential move-in date.

In August 2011, Cupertino posted details of Apple’s plans, which include the building of a new circular office, a research and development building totalling 2.8 million square feet, a 1,000 seat corporate auditorium, a fitness center, central plant, parking and another 300,000 square-foot research facility.

Apple believes its new campus will maximise efficiency and convenience to Apple’s employees, providing a co-location of services and consolidation of employees in a single distinctive office research and development building. It will also attempt to generate its own electricity on site, reducing its dependency on local power resources.

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Cupertino Mayor Gilbert Wong’s told press and residents at a press conference in June that “The mothership has landed here in Cupertino,” responding to Jobs’ proposed new “mothership” Apple campus. “There is no chance that we’re saying no,” Wong said. “Every time that we have a large company that has a large sales tax produced we are very accommodating to that company.”

Update: Apple has provided ATD with a statement:

Apple Campus 2 will be a new home for our company and an important part of the lives of more than 12,000 Apple employees. With that in mind, we have approached this project with the same care and attention to detail we pay when designing any Apple product. We look forward to moving the project forward with the city and beginning construction.