The chairman of a New York City real estate firm may have slipped up when he told a newspaper reporter that Apple’s real estate team approached him several months ago, and is now in preliminary talks to open a retail store along Austin Street in Forest Hills, Queens. Yeheskel Elias told the New York Daily News that, “I will do anything I can to bring Apple in.” Elias did not provide details of his talks with Apple, or mention specifically where Apple was scouting. Apple usually demands confidentiality for its real estate dealings, so Elias’ comments are significant. The company even posted a copy of the newspaper article on the “Press” page of its Web site. Austin Street runs for about three miles through the center of the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens. The area is a mix of national retailers along Austin Street, and residential homes and apartments beyond. The Heskel Group manages several properties along Austin Street, including stores occupied by Ann Taylor Loft, Staples, Gap, Duane Reade and The Disney Store. Several of the properties would fulfill Apple’s requirements, including the 22,000 square-foot, two-level building that houses the Gap store. There are existing Apple stores in Manhattan and Staten Island, but none in the other boroughs of New York City. There have been several rumors of future stores in the Bronx over the years, but no current projects have been spotted.
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I happen to live in Forest Hills and would love to see Apple come here, but I have to admit that I don’t think it would be a great place for Apple. Even though an Apple Store would make Austin Street more of a destination, it simply doesn’t generate that much traffic and while it is an area with lots of families (and Forest Hills Gardens, with $ multi-million homes, is right nearby), I would have to say that it has a primarily baby boomer and older population.
Astoria and Long Island City probably have ‘hipper’ populations, although the physical look of the areas is somewhat more downscale. Bayside probably has higher average income, but the only likely location in that area would be the large strip mall.
I don’t know why The Gap would move out of their location, but there are some 2-story locations that are empty diagonally across the street, formerly occupied by men’s clothing stores. Apple wouldn’t want to be any further west than that – that tends to be the “dead zone” on Austin Street. The other possiblity is the current Barnes & Noble store. B&N has been closing stores when their leases expire and I find it hard to believe that the Forest Hills location is an especially high-grossing store for them.