A vigilant Apple store enthusiast in Houston (Tex.) have learned that the future Highland Village retail store will be a down-sized duplicate of the Upper West Side (NYC) store, including its remarkable arched glass roof. Tracy Evans noted the similarity on his blog and had a friend whip up a sketch. The Texas store is nearing completion on the city’s west side, and could open by next month. Like UWS, the store will feature an all-glass storefront, glass roof and Tennessee limestone side walls. Unlike UWS, the rear of the store will also be all-glass, similar to the design of the Scottsdale Quarter (Ariz.) store. Bu in this case, there will be an entrance at both ends. Back-of-house space is apparently provided in an adjacent space, not a basement. The future Palo Alto (N. Calif.) and Third Street Promenade (S. Calif.) stores—both expansions of existing stores—will also feature the UWS design, according to renderings submitted by Apple to city planning officials. However, the scale of the stores will be smaller than the original Upper West Side store that opened to rave architectural reviews in 2009. photo comparison
After the announcement that Apple had filed legal papers to formalize its corporate retail presence in Sweden, tipsters have been searching for the location of the first store, and have now settled on Hamngatan 15 in the upscale shopping district of central Stockholm. The seven-level building dates to 1881 and has recently been renovated by a new owner. It was formerly a department store, with 12-foot ceilings on the ground floor totaling about 2,000 square-feet, and another 1,400 square-feet in the basement. The building overlooks a large plaza that is busy with pedestrians. Stockholm is the capital of Sweden, with over two million residents in the metro area—about 22 percent of the entire country’s citizens. If the speculation is true, the store would be the first Apple store in Scandinavia, but not the most-northern store in the chain—that honor belongs to the Fifth Avenue Mall (Anchorage) store. details
A legacy of books and music has followed the building at the corner of Burrard and Robson Streets in downtown Vancouver (Canada), where Apple will reportedly open a two-level store by the end of 2012. According to real estate insiders, when the HMV megastore at 750 Burrard Street closes down in January, Apple will begin renovations on 16,000 square-feet, creating the city’s first street-level store. The future store would occupy a conspicuous corner that is the subject of tourist and architectural highlight tours, in a city that attracts 9 million tourists a year. The six-level, mostly-glass building was constructed in 1957 as the city’s second public library, and its modern architecture won many awards and gained it heritage status. In 1995 the city decided to move the library, so Sir Richard Branson took over the retail space in 1996 for a Virgin Megastore, selling music music albums, tapes and CDs. In 2005, Virgin moved out and retailer HMV moved in to sell CDs, DVDs, video games and other electronic media. Ironically, the music retailer has also held live music sessions in the store. Earlier this month HMV announced it was closing the location in the wake of financial problems, vacating the basement, ground and second floors. Other levels of the building are occupied by Canadian TV and smaller retailers. The Apple store would be three blocks from the existing Pacific Centre retail store, hidden away on the second level of the city-center mall. Three other Apple stores are in the near suburbs of Vancouver. details
A pair of real estate investment firms has paid a reported $75 million for the property and building occupied by Apple’s SoHo (NYC) retail store, a move that will not affect the existing lease Apple signed in 2001. The property in lower Manhattan was previously a neighborhood post office, and opened as Apple store #32 in July 2002. Apple owns very few of its street-level store properties, preferring to lease from real estate investors. In this case, Apple’s original 18-year lease was with Ingersoll Realty, according to a New York Post newspaper story. Now the remaining eight years of the lease will be paid to Crown Acquisitions Inc. and Centurion Realty LLC. The investors purchased the property for its reliable revenue stream, sources said. Apple store properties are considered very attractive for investors, since Apple is an excellent tenant and provides excellent maintenance of its stores, and no stores have ever closed. The SoHo store is now undergoing an expansion, and store operations have been moved to a nearby temporary on Greene Street.
Apple’s expansive plans for new international store locations in 2012 will begin in France and Spain, according to job openings posted on the company’s Web site. The new stores will be among about 30 the company will open outside the United States during fiscal 2012, out of a total of about 40 new stores. According to job listings a new store will open in Paris, although the exact location of the store isn’t stated on the job listing. There is speculation the store might be located in the shopping area of La Défense, northwest of city center. There are already five Apple stores in the greater Paris region. The second store will open in the city of Murcia, with a population of about 450,00 along the southeast coast of Spain. Like the Paris store, the exact location within the city isn’t known. The store would be about two hours south of the Valencia store that is expected to open next month, and 400 miles north of a future store in Marbella. Since the economic down-turn that began in 2008, Apple has emphasized international expansion, opening about twice as many locations outside the United States as within.
The usual end-of-year quiet period for Apple’s retail chain has been broken with news of a future store in Lyon (France). As first reported by MacGeneration.com, the store will be located within La Confluence, a 350-acre development being constructed in phases over the next 25 years to extend and modernize the city center. The location is where the Rhône and Saône Rivers converge, and plans call for residences, offices, parks, waterways, public buildings and about 1.3 million square-feet of retail space. Job listings were posted last month for the city’s second store, indicating the store could open by May 2012. photos
The Apple retail store chain has several conspicuous international regions without stores, including one that may soon be filled—Scandinavia. According to legal documents filed with the Swedish government last week, Apple has formed a limited liability company, Apple Retail Sweden AB, that will enable it to conduct business within the country. As first spotted by AlltOmMac.com, the application documents state the company’s purpose is, “To operate, manage and monitor one or more whole or retail shops and the sale…of all types of products, equipment and spare parts in the areas of software, computers, computer equipment , music, communications and related technology.” The stores would also provide, “services, advice and or assistance, maintenance and after sales services related to the above activities,” the documents state. The application was signed by three Apple employees who serve as the subsidiary’s board: Steve Cano, Sr. Dir. of International Retail; Gene Levoff, corporate counsel; and Gary Wipfler, company treasurer who also serves as the board’s chair. Apple retail stores now operate in 11 countries. But there are no stores on the continents of South America and Africa, no presence in the Middle East and eastern Europe, and a relatively small presence in Asia. Company executives said last month during a financial conference call that about 28 of the 40 stores opening during fiscal 2012 will be outside the United States. However, they did not say how many of those stores would open in newly-served countries.
The Third Street Promenade Apple retail store is among the top 25 sales tax contributors to the city of Santa Monica (S. Calif.), according to a local merchant group, generated from $352 million in sales during fiscal 2011, about eight times the per-store average for the chain worldwide. The sales figure revelation is unusual since, like most companies, Apple closely guards individual store financial figures. In its fall on-line newsletter, the group Downtown Santa Monica (DSM) also confirms that previously anonymous and logo-less store renderings submitted to city planners earlier this year do, in fact, depict a larger replacement Apple store for the busy Third Street Promenade location, which has become too small for its daily traffic. The newsletter says the group’s CEO Kathleen Rawson has written the city’s planning commission to say said the group is, “excited about the proposed design,” modeled after the Upper West Side store in New York City and about a block from the existing store. The newsletter also quotes Santa Monica city manager saying, “We are delighted Apple wants to make this investment on Third Street Promenade.” A DSM real estate consultant and city council member also provide favorable quotes in the newsletter about the proposed Apple store, which will cover 8,084 square-feet on a single retail level, with basement offices, Genius room and stock areas. Download (pdf) the merchant group’s newsletter for more details about the group’s reaction to the future store.
On the heels of Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer’s confirmation yesterday that Apple is in the midst of expanding many stores, the new Victoria Gardens (S. Calif.) store will open this Saturday with over twice the square-footage of the original 2004 store. Despite having 3,000 square-feet behind a 30-foot storefront, the current store has been packed with visitors since it opened. The new store will have 6,075 square-feet and a 60-foot wide storefront featuring the latest design that eliminates stainless steel siding, and substitutes stone and glass. There are several other stores in various stages of being expanded, including Knox Street (Texas), SoHo (NYC) and Palo Alto (N. Calif.). The Victoria Gardens store store will open at 10 a.m.
While the grand opening event for the IFC Mall (Hong Kong) retail store is set for Saturday, it was Thursday when Apple took care of several special groups: the press, the business community, and friends and families of store employees. The visits are traditional for Apple, acknowledging three very important components of a retail operation that depends upon publicity, commerce and support for their employees. There was a constant stream of invited visitors into the store, while hundreds walked by in the mall, taking photos of the store. In the morning local press representative toured the stores, asked questions, and took photos and videos they later posted. Vice-president Retail Bob Bridger, the #2 man under out-going Sr. VP Retail Ron Johnson, was at the store to explain that it’s 16,000 square-feet on a 10-year lease, staffed by 300 employees, the majority from the Hong Kong region. In the afternoon, invited local business executives were treated slightly better, greeted with drinks served on trays by waiters. And in the early evening, mothers, fathers, other relatives and friends appeared inside the store to marvel at its design, and to congratulate the employees on their good fortune to be hired at one of Apple’s most spectacular high-profile stores. photos
A proposed demolition and new 10-story office building in the financial district of London (UK) has attracted the attention of Apple’s retail team, who might want to lease the entire 13,000 square-feet of ground-floor retail space when the building is finished. A source told the Reuters news service that Apple has talked to the developer of 100 Cheapside about becoming a tenant in the building, which also has about 86,000 square-feet of upper-floor office space. The building is less than two miles from the existing Covent Garden store and would be the third in city center. However, the project is currently in limbo on two fronts—first, the land is owned by the city of London, which is still looking for a buyer after one bidder dropper out. Second, plans for the building are being challenged by 13 neighbors, who say they were not consulted about the proposed building’s height and bulk, and how it will block their sunlight. The neighbors’ challenge is part of a nationwide effort to set a legal precedent on whether neighbors to a proposed project have a right in law to sunlight, or whether planning officials can approve buildings that reduce sight-lines to the sun. Because of these uncertainties, it’s not clear when the building will be finished or when the store might open. You can view a list the application documents submitted by the developer to the city of London planning agency, or download (pdf) the individual building elevation, floor plan or project summary (which uses photos of Apple stores as an example retailer). rendering
The enormity of the future Jungfernstieg (Hamburg, Germany) Apple retail store became obvious today when workers finished removing scaffolding that has hidden the two-level storefront for six months. In this photo by Stefan, a temporary black curtain covers the 80-foot wide glass window, but is not quite tall enough to conceal the stem of the white Apple logo suspended in the middle of the space. It appears that a royal red covering has been placed over the window glass, probably with some wording to announce the new store when the black covering is removed at any time now. The red covering will be removed the day before the store opens, which tipsters say is September 17th. photos
After three years of whispers about expanding or moving the Third Street Promenade (S. Calif.) retail store, plans have surfaced for a new store two blocks away that would be a twin of the Upper West Side (NYC) store. As first reported by LA Curbed, the Santa Monica Planning Commission will consider a proposal tomorrow from a holding company who purchased the building at 1415 Third Street last September. The owner wants to demolish the existing three-story building that was formerly a Borders bookstore, and construct a “one story retail business,” according to the building permit application. Typically, neither the application submitted on April 28th nor the renderings mention Apple. But the project description and the building appearance leave no doubt who will occupy the space. The Third Street Promenade store opened along the busy pedestrian mall in this seaside city in July 2003, and is one of the chain’s busiest locations. The existing store is a single level, 45-foot wide space with less than 7,500 square-feet. The new store would have a 75-foot wide storefront with 13,294 square-feet of space, all under a 34-foot tall arched glass roof. About 5,210 square-feet would be within a partial basement used for back-of-house operations. map/renderings
An enormous project now underway to rehabilitate Denver’s Union Station and make it a center of transportation, commerce and public gatherings may also host an Apple retail store. In a promotional video rendering posted by the developer, an Apple logo is clearly visible during a fly-over of the final project. Although logos and signs in developer videos are traditionally speculative, a tipster says there is substance to Apple’s participation in the project. Right now, the closest Apple store to downtown is at Cherry Creek mall, 3½ miles southeast. An Apple store near the city’s downtown district and Coor’s Field ballpark would be a major destination. Union Station dates to 1865 and for decades served as a hub for east-west rail transport. But as rail travel declined, so did the station and the surrounding 30 acres of rail yards. Now a developer is ready to complete the first phase of a project to link the rail station to downtown with new pedestrian spaces, an underground bus station and new buildings that would attract pedestrians to shops and restaurants. A light-rail station opens next week, and other elements of the project will be completed through 2012. renderings
A local newspaper has confirmed that an Apple store will appear in the Southgate (Sarasota, Fla.) shopping mall, after operator Westfield Group moves two existing tenants to other locations to create a sufficiently large space. The Herald-Tribune says the relocation and new Apple store is part of a long-delayed, multi-phase expansion of the mall that would add 30 retailers. According to the newspaper, Westfield is moving the LensCrafter and GNC stores out of spaces #14 and #15, and into other spaces. Apple would then occupy the combined 42-foot wide space, giving it a 4,100 square-foot store. The store would fill in an area along Florida’s west coast south of Tampa that has no Apple stores. According to the newspaper, the store could open by December.