Apple to build elegant retail store in Manhattan's Midtown
Sometime this year Apple Computer is expected to begin renovation and construction efforts on its second New York City-based retail store, set to touch down in central Manhattan.
After months of searching for a feasible location in pricey Midtown, the company has reportedly settled on a lease for a massive retail space in the lower-level concourse of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, between 58th and 59th Street.
The GM building, which rests atop an entire city block directly across the street from the Plaza Hotel, is also home to an FAO Schwarz toy store, which moved in fourteen years ago. The building is also just a few strides from the southern tip of Central Park.
Although it's very early in the development stages, sources say Apple will turn the 21,000-square-foot space into a retail store that will 'rival anything seen so far' from the company's retail division.
Specifics are lacking, but one source claims Apple will give the exterior of the store a look similar to the glass Pyramid found in the Louvre's cour Napoléon, only in cube form.
The cost of the venture is expected to be steep. Apple's existing New York-based flagship store, located in Manhattan's SoHo district, reportedly costs the company just over $2 million in rent each year, on top of an initial $5 million in renovation costs.
Insiders believe the GM retail location fetched over $3 million a year.
After months of searching for a feasible location in pricey Midtown, the company has reportedly settled on a lease for a massive retail space in the lower-level concourse of the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue, between 58th and 59th Street.
The GM building, which rests atop an entire city block directly across the street from the Plaza Hotel, is also home to an FAO Schwarz toy store, which moved in fourteen years ago. The building is also just a few strides from the southern tip of Central Park.
Although it's very early in the development stages, sources say Apple will turn the 21,000-square-foot space into a retail store that will 'rival anything seen so far' from the company's retail division.
Specifics are lacking, but one source claims Apple will give the exterior of the store a look similar to the glass Pyramid found in the Louvre's cour Napoléon, only in cube form.
The cost of the venture is expected to be steep. Apple's existing New York-based flagship store, located in Manhattan's SoHo district, reportedly costs the company just over $2 million in rent each year, on top of an initial $5 million in renovation costs.
Insiders believe the GM retail location fetched over $3 million a year.
Comments
All they need now is a store on Madison Ave selling gemstone-encrusted iPod photos for $10k a pop and they'll have NYC covered.
Originally posted by Amorph
They certainly don't mess around anymore.
All they need now is a store on Madison Ave selling gemstone-encrusted iPod photos for $10k a pop and they'll have NYC covered.
This could be that store. If this store stretches from one end of the block to the other (if possible), there could be a Madison Ave. entrance. Including (like you said) selling this.
A better analogy for the facade would probably be the Rose Center, at least for the NYC folks who know it. It uses a point-supported curtain wall, though I bet even Apple won't go with a system that expensive.
3 blocks away!
<kneels on bended knee and thanks almighty for bounty>
The only thing better is having Steve Jobs deliver me a Pizza!
ack!
Originally posted by Amorph
Actually, what they need now is a mini store in Astoria, so my brother doesn't have to hop the iron worm all the way to SOHO. 8)
yia sas!
Nice frontage facing the park and across from the plaza hotel.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=115457
Originally posted by TednDi
I wonder if that is the old FAO Schwartz space?
Nice frontage facing the park and across from the plaza hotel.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=115457
I remember seeing somewhere that FAO Schwartz was closing that shop.
Does anyone know ? If it is the same place it would be an AMAZING location.
j.
Originally posted by johnrp
I remember seeing somewhere that FAO Schwartz was closing that shop.
Does anyone know ? If it is the same place it would be an AMAZING location.
j.
There are only 2 spaces on 5th av in the General Motors Building. One is the FAO schwartz space and the other is the lobby of the GM Building. I am reasonably sure that the FAO schwartz space is it! It also has a large frontage which would be ideal for the louvre like Im Pey is apple cube!
Toy store for me!!
Originally posted by thuh Freak
i've heard that FAO may close shop; infact I thought it already had, until I passed it a few weeks ago. 't would be real keen. i wouldn't have to trek all the way downtown. /laziness.
They have an ice cream shop and big stuffed animals in there last I checked. Perhaps the lease ends at the end of jan/feb? Or apple bought out the lease.
"FAO Schwartz reopened its Fifth Avenue flagship in November after bankruptcy forced it to permanently close the majority of its posh toy stores."
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...886&ran=132679
Not the best of sources. Anyway, I know the one here in Boston closed a while back. Perhaps they are finally done for?
Originally posted by BuonRotto
It won't stretch that far, it would have to cut across Rockefeller Center. The GM building is the west edge of that complex. It's right on the southeast corner of the Park. Well, technically, it's a block off, but the fountain and drawn carriage area feel like Central Park proper. FAO Shwartz has the entrance right on the corner of 5th and 59th, so this would have to be either just south of that on 5th or around the corner.
I don't see how Rockefeller Center would need to be cut across as it is south and west of the GM building by several blocks.
They have an ice cream shop and big stuffed animals in there last I checked. Perhaps the lease ends at the end of jan/feb? Or apple bought out the lease.
FAO Schwartz just reopened the NYC as one of its 2 flagship stores and has no plans for closing as of this time. The store was completely remodeled and is under new ownership.
Apple was rumored to be interested in the GM building for several years now. I don't know what space they would occupy though. Especially a space so large and with a decent sidewalk view. If anything, the store would need to be underground which IMO is not very attractive.
Originally posted by applenut
I don't see how Rockefeller Center would need to be cut across as it is south and west of the GM building by several blocks.
<smacks hand on forehead>
Duh!
Originally posted by BuonRotto
<smacks hand on forehead>
Duh!
haha, I kept rereading your post and was like..."well, he sounds like he knows what he's saying...maybe I'm misreading what he's saying"
easy mistake.
I'm still confused about what space they will occupy in the GM building.
Originally posted by applenut
Especially a space so large and with a decent sidewalk view. If anything, the store would need to be underground which IMO is not very attractive.
I think Applenut may have hit the nail on the head.
If you have been to the Louvre you will remember that you use the pyramid as the entrance (below ground).
At least I think so I was 12 last time I was there.
j.