Confirmation of Apple’s plans to open a store on Saint Catherine Street in downtown Montreal comes in a strange way: three parking meters in front of the building. In its plans to the city, Apple has proposed to remove the meters at 1321 Saint Catherine to enhance the architecture of the building, and then to compensate the city about $6,640 a year for lost revenue. According to a story in the Montreal Press, the city has declined Apple’s offer, saying the meters not only generate revenue, but also force rotation of cars through the busy shopping district. A city spokesman said they are open to compromise, such as replacing several individual meters with a single payment terminal. However, complete removal of meters is not acceptable. The current Boutique Mens clothing store will close in November and move out, and Apple will then rebuild the structure as a 9,300 square-foot retail store, which could open by fall 2008.
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that doesn’t surprise me one bit that apple is going above and beyond… i’m not sure exactly how the city will take to that, but… good for apple for trying
Well with San Fran, they just photoshopped what they didn’t want in out, so why not just do the same here? What are three spaces going to matter? I mean three spaces wouldn’t cover the amount of people checking out myspace or the amount of people the Genius Bar is behind. Nice idea though paying the $6K per year in lost revenues. I don’t see why they don’t take it, they still get the money.
-Brian
If the city removes the meters, people are gonna park at 9am and not leave til 5, defeating the point of removing meters. If the city paints the curb green, it’s a hassle for parking ticketers to determine when a violation happens.
I wondered if parking ticket revenue was taken into account. For 10 hours a day, less sundays and holidays, Apple offered around 3 quarters per hour per meter.
Yeah and currently, it’s at least a dollar or two an hour to park on St. Catherine, so that’s a lot of lost revenue.
I live in Montreal, and for those who said “why doesn’t the city take the 6k”… well, because that area is ALWAYS full of cars, its really hard to find a parking spot there, if one car leaves, another comes in.
So, when I did the calculation, every year the city makes exactly 11,322 dollars on each parking spot, do the math.. 3 dollars per hour, 12 hours of pay mon-fri, 9 hours of pay in sat, 5 hours of pay on sun. 51 weeks in a year and the city won’t allow a person to park in an illegal parking area (which will happen if Apple did buy the spot) because it will give that person an expensive parking ticket
just my two cents..
