Is Apple taking a bigger bite in Boulder?

BOULDER — It’s been nearly a year since Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) announced plans to add hundreds of new jobs in Boulder. And while rumors have swirled since that December 2018 news, Apple has been mum about its specific plans for spreading its Boulder roots. 

Details on Apple’s Boulder operations remain scant, but BizWest can confirm that the Cupertino, California-based company has taken over office space in a business park on the 5300 block of Sterling Drive.

While there is no exterior signage to indicate who occupies the locked and secured building at 5360 Sterling, Apple’s ubiquitous logo — a round, silver apple shape with a bite taken from its right side — is clearly visible on the wall of a first-floor lobby. 

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The office space at 5360 is occupied. On Friday morning, the parking was mostly full, and there were electric cars being charged at stations in front of the building. 

In December, Apple announced plans to build a $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, establish new corporate sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California, and expand operations in Boulder, Pittsburgh and New York. This growth is part of the firm’s plans to create 20,000 jobs in the United States by 2023.

Multiple requests over the past year —including several made Friday — to Apple for comment regarding its Boulder operations have been ignored by the company. 

The property at 5360 Sterling is owned by Ivy 5360 Sterling Property LLC, Boulder County property records show. That entity is a holding company registered to the New Jersey address of real estate investment outfit Ivy Realty.

Ivy did not respond to messages left with the firm’s local leasing contact and Connecticut corporate office.

Ivy owns a quartet of adjacent buildings in the business park: 5300, 5305 5330 and 5360 Sterling. 

The 20-year-old building occupied by Apple, which is roughly 40,000 square feet and sits on about two acres, was bought by Ivy in late 2017 for nearly $5.5 million, property records show. The 2017 sales price for 5330 Sterling was more than $6.4 million. Earlier this year, Ivy bought 5300 and 5305 Sterling for $8.75 million. Real estate investment services firm Jones Lang LaSalle IP Inc. arranged bridge financing for Ivy to purchase those properties. In total, Ivy owns about a half-dozen commercial and industrial properties in Boulder, including several office buildings in Gunbarrel.

According to an August news release from Jones Lang LaSalle about Ivy’s Boulder property purchases, Ivy was “leasing the [5360 Sterling] property to a multinational technology company.” Apple certainly fits that description. 

“The property location provides access to a highly educated talent pool and one of the highest concentrations of software engineers in the country,” the JLL release said.

W.W. Reynolds Cos., Boulder-based developer and commercial real estate landlord, has posted several online leasing brochures for Ivy’s Sterling Drive properties. The listing brokers did not respond to questions from BizWest. 

Additional evidence of Apple’s growing Boulder operations is available on the tech firm’s job board. Apple is hiring for several positions in Boulder, including software engineers and a facilities coordinator. 

Apple has declined in the past to disclose specific employee counts for its Boulder offices, but has provided a range of 100 to 250 employees. That headcount could jump to 250 to 500 by 2022.

Boulder is increasingly becoming a popular hub for Silicon Valley-based tech behemoths. Amazon set up shop downtown at 1900 15th St. in 2018 and Google took over the former CA Technologies Inc. offices at 3333 Walnut St. earlier this year.