An official-looking black tarp and white Apple logo has appeared in front of a space at the two-level Jockey Plaza shopping mall in Lima (Peru, SA), indicating that an authorized reseller will open using the name iStore. The store is scheduled to open in January, 2008.

Lima has almost 8 million residents, and at 861,000 square-feet of retail space, the mall is the largest in the country, with 220 shops, restaurants and cinema. The mall also boasts a high per-ticket purchase tab, and a young shopper demographic. The shops include many international brands, including Sony, Lacostse, Hugo Boss, Benetton, Swatch, KFC, Pizza Hut, Dockers, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Thanks to Jeremy for noting the store near the center court of the mall. The front of the space is covered by a wall sized black tarp with a giant white Apple logo in the center. "I peeked through, and the store is in the early stages of construction, with everything cleared out down to the basic four walls of the space," he reports. He provided these photos of the space and surrounding mall.

Update: Within about 10 days, another notation appeared below the Apple logo--"Authorized Reseller." That confirms that this obviously will not be an Apple store, but part of the growing list of Apple resellers.

The covering and logo are very similar to what Apple would use in the United States to cover their store construction.

Just up from Starbucks!

Shortly after this story ran, additional wording was added to the tarp--"Authorized Reseller," indicating that it's not an official company store.