Apple confirmed on Tuesday that it has spent $445 million to acquire a sprawling 270,000-square-meter campus in Rancho Bernardo, San Diego, California, underscoring the tech giant’s efforts to expand in the region Rooted determination.

The deal is believed to be Apple’s first commercial property purchase in San Diego. Although Apple has operated retail stores in San Diego for years, it began building an engineering presence there in 2018, when the company announced plans to build a wireless technology hub that could seat 1,200 people.

In 2019, Apple promised to add 1,200 new jobs in San Diego by 2022, and said it would build a new campus there. Apple has since leased several office buildings in University City, Rancho Bernardo, and is now buying the Rancho Vista Enterprise Center for $445 million.

Media reports said that this is Apple’s first purchase of commercial real estate in San Diego, and Apple plans to increase local employees to 5,000 by 2026.

In 2019, San Diego officials said that Apple would recruit hardware and software employees. Considering that Qualcomm also has an office park there, there is speculation that Apple’s goal is to replace Qualcomm products with its own modem processors. But judging from recent news on the job page, Apple is looking to hire software, data science and other non-hardware talent.

The Rancho Vista Enterprise Center was previously owned by HP, which was sold to Swift Real Estate for $69 million, and HP leased back five of the seven buildings. Swift has said it spent $80 million renovating the campus.