Apple is poised for growth

Company is looking “to have close to 700 employees” in the region by 2026

Apple appears to be the mystery tenant touted in a listing brochure for a portfolio of properties in the Flatiron Park business park in Boulder, perhaps accounting for almost 240,000 square feet of space.

The company is attempting to sell just more than 1 million square feet of space spread across 21 buildings, according to a marketing brochure from brokerage Jones Lang Lasalle Inc.

A major selling point referenced repeatedly in marketing materials, which do not include an asking price, is the presence of an “undisclosed tech tenant.” There’s evidence that the mystery tenant is Apple Inc.

Apple has long been rumored to covet space in Flatiron Park, and evidence suggests that the Cupertino, Calif., company could be this mystery tenant, which JLL’S brochure shows as occupying nearly 240,000 square feet in 2300, 2400, 5777 and 5718 Central Ave.

“Apple is growing its engineering team in Boulder and expects to have close to 700 employees at its offices in the region by 2026,” a company spokesperson told Bizwest on Thursday.

Apple did not reply to specific questions about its presence in Flatiron Park.

Representatives of Dean Callan & Co., the company in charge of leasing at Flatiron Park, declined to comment, as did JLL. Crescent did not respond to requests for comment.

Here’s what Bizwest knows about the link between Apple and Flatiron Park:

• Apple signage, including the image of the company’s iconic logo, is visible from outside the office space at 5718 Central Ave.

• According to publicly available records from Boulder’s Planning and Development Services Department, Apple pulled a series of fire permits for the 5718 Central Ave. address over the past year and a half.

• The JLL brochure describes the undisclosed tenant as having an AA+ credit rating. Standards & Poor’s reaffirmed Apple’s AA+ rating in 2017.

• Marketing materials say that the tenant has a market cap of $2.54 trillion. Apple’s market cap, which fluctuates with the stock market, was about $2.43 trillion on Thursday — close to the figure cited in the JLL brochure. The only other company in that stratosphere is Microsoft Corp.

• The brochure refers to Boulder as one the tenant’s “targeted growth markets.” This is certainly the case for Apple, which went public in April with its plan to expand its Boulder workforce to