Apple planning for ‘in-case-of’ delay in its new London HQ

Bloomberg

Apple Inc. is making contingency plans in case construction of its new London headquarters at the iconic Battersea Power Station is delayed, the Times newspaper reported.
The iPhone maker has had early-stage talks about extending existing leases and finding temporary bases if needed, the paper said, citing people in the property market that it didn’t identify.
The project’s Malaysian-backed developer told the paper it was confident that the building would be completed on time.
“We’ll give them that building at the end of 2020,” Simon Murphy, chief executive officer of Battersea Power Station Development Co., told the Times.
Apple’s press office wasn’t immediately reachable outside regular business hours.
Built in the 1930s and derelict for decades, the former coal-fired power plant is known outside the UK for being on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 rock album “Animals.”
The new Apple HQ, which is the largest historic building development undertaken in the UK, is part of a wider redevelopment of the area on the south side of the River Thames, which has
seen the US embassy relocated nearby and thousands of new apartments under construction.
Apple is leasing about 500,000 square feet (46,451 square metres) of office space at the new headquarters, and plans to move 1,400 employees there.
Bloomberg News reported last year that the building’s developers were on course to achieve less than half of their original return target as costs rose and wider economic uncertainty damps demand for the most expensive homes.