Apple doubles planned Seattle expansion to 2,000 employees

At a press conference today, Apple and Seattle’s mayor, Jenny Durkan, announced that the company would bring 2,000 employees to the city over the next five years. That’s double the number of employees Apple had originally planned when it announced Seattle was part of a major US expansion this past December. Apple plans to occupy two 12-story towers, both powered by renewable energy. GeekWire reports that it will total 630,000 square feet of floor space.

Apple intends for its Seattle offices to become a “key engineering hub,” in the same city that hosts Amazon’s HQ. Engineering positions will include “hardware, software technologies, and services,” says Kristina Raspe, the VP of global real estate and development for Apple, adding that she would like potential employees in Seattle to “call us.”

Before giving her official statement, Mayor Durkan quipped that “I’m suddenly much more interested in talking about HQ2 — a different HQ2.” That was a not-so subtle jab at Amazon, which held a nationwide contest to build a second headquarters that devolved into a hilarious failure in New York. Apple’s office will be at 333 Dexter, which Geekwire notes is…