Apple reportedly plans to occupy another office campus

Despite already having a massive second campus under construction, Apple apparently feels the need for more office space.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant has agreed to lease a seven-building campus in neighboring Sunnyvale that can accommodate up to 1,450 employees, according to a San Jose Mercury Newsreport that cited city documents and commercial property sources. The 290,000-square-foot office complex known as Sunnyvale Crossing is near the intersection of Central Expressway and North Wolfe Road, about three miles from where Apple is building a 2.8 million-square-foot "spaceship" campus for up to 14,200 employees.

It wasn't immediately clear what the length of the lease is. CNET has contacted Apple and Lane Partners, the owner of the Sunnyvale office complex, for comment and will update this report when we learn more. Lane Partners' website says it acquired the seven-building campus in 2010 from Maxim Integrated Products, a semiconductor maker now based in San Jose.

The deal -- the latest sign of Apple's robust workforce growth in the Silicon Valley -- is likely a band-aid while the company constructs a new campus across town on 150 acres, some of which was purchased from Hewlett-Packard. That project, which Apple CEO Steve Jobs said resembled a "spaceship" in 2011, has an estimated completion date of 2016.

While stumping for a new company headquarters, Jobs noted that "Apple's growing like a weed," yet its main campus only fits around 2,800 employees. Jobs said the company had around 12,000 employees in the area who were being housed in nearby buildings, some of which were "not very good."

A month after Apple launched its "spaceship" headquarters effort, the company reportedly inked a deal for 373,000 square feet in the Results Way Corporate Center -- just a few minutes away from Apple's main offices -- that would house up to 1,300 additional employees.