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CUPERTINO — The “spaceship” of Silicon Valley has landed in Cupertino, but the question remains: How much did it cost to build?

Construction data and analytics startup BuildZoom estimated in October that the new Apple campus cost more than $1.1 billion, based on the building permits.

But longtime Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone estimates that costs for the iPhone maker’s shiny new campus far exceeded BuildZoom’s estimate, and may be closer to $5 billion — or just about the cost of 5 million iPhone X’s.

Due to the campus size of 175 acres and the company’s ambition of creating a large, ring-shaped structure with no visible bolts or screws, Apple Park has no clear parallels in Santa Clara County.

Levi’s Stadium, another recent massive construction project, cost roughly $1.3 billion, according to 2015 estimates from Stone’s office.

But Stone’s deputy, David Ginsborg, said comparing Levi’s Stadium to Apple Park is like comparing apples to oranges because of their vastly different purposes and construction materials.

For Ginsborg, the newly opened Salesforce Tower in San Francisco — another iconic office structure by a tech giant — is a better comparison. That structure — the tallest building in the Bay Area — cost $1 billion, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Apple could not be reached for comment on the cost. Stone said the nearly $4 billion discrepancy between his new estimate and BuildZoom’s earlier figure for Apple Park’s construction cost highlights a common misunderstanding of how building permits work and what their purpose is.

Building permits are just a preliminary road map to how much a construction project may cost before the first shovel is turned. They don’t include the costs for labor, overtime, additional materials and redesign, all of which add significantly to the final tab.

The Apple Park project, initially scheduled to open in 2015, faced numerous delays which undoubtedly drove up costs; it finally opened earlier this year. Another price-hiking factor: Its construction came amid a Silicon Valley economic boom, when the Bay Area faced a shortage of construction workers, according to Issi Romem, chief economist for BuildZoom.

“It’s hard to come by good, skilled construction workers, and especially so in the Bay Area,” said Romem. “It is very believable that labor costs are a substantial part of why the construction costs increased.”

Apple Park’s exact construction costs will be factored into the final assessed property value, which has not yet been completed. In 2016-2017, before the project was completed, Apple paid the second highest property tax bill in Santa Clara County at $33.7 million, behind PG&E, according to the Assessor’s Office’s 2016-2017 annual report.

The last time the Assessor’s Office released estimated Apple Park construction costs was September 2016, when it put the figure at $1.6 billion for costs up to January 1 of that year. But Stone now estimates the construction cost will likely be $5 billion.

The Assessor’s Office said Apple Park’s final assessed value — the basis for the tax bill for the new campus — may be less than its final construction costs. That’s because certain materials and constructed goods may be valuable only to Apple and can’t factor into the assessed value, which also considers the fair market value of the property.

“What would one willing buyer pay upon the completion for this project?” said Ginsborg. “That’s the test.”

But some of Apple Park’s true value isn’t taxable, said Stone, who has been assessor since 1994. The enormous “spaceship” building is a symbol of Silicon Valley, and a local tourism destination to boot.

“In all my time (as assessor), I’m not sure we’ve seen anything where the construction is as unique and innovative as Apple Park,” said Stone. “I mean, the whole building can move over four feet (to withstand earthquakes).”