Apple to more than double floor space at iconic Fifth Avenue store

AppleInsider

Apple will more than double the space of its popular Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan as part of ongoing renovations at the site, with the company promising "new services and experiences" once the outlet reopens.

Douglas Linde, president of Boston Properties, in an earnings conference call on Wednesday said that the glass cube-topped underground Apple store will grow from about 32,000 square feet to 77,000 square feet, reports Bloomberg. The Boston-based company is co-owner of the General Motors Building and acts as Apple's landlord for the Fifth Avenue location.

Linde also confirmed Apple as the "mystery" tenant Boston Properties has been discussing for the past year. The Cupertino, Calif., tech giant was for months rumored to expand its flagship New York City operation, but plans for a supposed mass expansion were left unconfirmed until today.

While construction workers build out Apple's new digs, the company is operating out of a temporarily location in what used to be FAO Schwarz. Reports last year claimed Apple was negotiating a permanent expansion into the former toy store, a spot the company supposedly felt "entitled" to for drawing in foot traffic with its main Fifth Avenue outlet.

The iPhone maker apparently abandoned those plans, allowing Boston Properties to lease the space to athletic clothing purveyor Under Armour.

Neither Apple nor Boston Properties has released an estimated timeline for project completion, but Apple spokesman Nick Leahy said the company expects an "incredible" new Fifth Avenue store "where our customers will enjoy new services and experiences in a much larger space," the report said.

Renovations at Apple's Fifth Avenue store began on Jan. 20.

Outside of Manhattan, Apple is rumored to have signed a 10-year contract for a new retail location in Fort Greene, near downtown Brooklyn. The company opened its first Brooklyn store last year in Williamsburg, just north of the borough's population center.

ireland

77,000 is pretty large.

When you sell 10 iPhones per second 24 hours a day you can build anything you like I guess.

crowley

Seems like a massive increase, where is the extra space coming from?

Now the Regent Street store has reopened it seems like there's less floor space overall, but it's much more open and prettified.

zoetmb

As far as I can tell, the only way they can double the space is to have space on multiple levels, unless there's additional basement space adjacent to the east wall of the current store that they can expand into.   (Or possibly the south wall, although that would probably be the FAO Schwartz basement.)  

Frankly, I don't see additional space increasing sales.   It will just make the store less crowded and the machines more accessible.   The store tends to attract tourists who spend long periods of time checking email, etc., although you'd think this wouldn't be as necessary since they're carrying smartphones.  But maybe many don't bother to buy roaming data plans and they use the store instead. 

That store is open 24/7, but it looks like the temporary store closes at midnight. 

slprescott

That's big enough to drive a truck through... or maybe an electric car. (... in a few years)

robin huber

My local store, Brea Mall in Cali, is crowded even on light days. During holiday seasons and release events it's jammed. More floor space would be great, though they just updated and moved spaces a couple of months ago. But what is really needed, even more than that, is some sound deadening materials. You literally cannot hear yourself think in there. Perhaps this is intended to create a sense of excitement, but conversations with staff are difficult. 

ksec

Why hasnt Apple gone into property market?

bestkeptsecret

crowley said:

Seems like a massive increase, where is the extra space coming from?

Now the Regent Street store has reopened it seems like there's less floor space overall, but it's much more open and prettified.

Can you still go to the first floor, or is it all on the ground floor now?

crowley

Therebestkeptsecret said:

crowley said:

Seems like a massive increase, where is the extra space coming from?

Now the Regent Street store has reopened it seems like there's less floor space overall, but it's much more open and prettified.

Can you still go to the first floor, or is it all on the ground floor now?

There's still an upstairs, but it's a lot smaller.

cali

Man with all this money I feel like Apple should remodel/move all the small stores into iconic architectural masterpieces.

you have all these beautiful flagship stores and then the small ones in the mall that look no better than clothing store or restaurant next to it.

crowley said:

Seems like a massive increase, where is the extra space coming from?

It's coming from the Apple Car.
/half S

zoetmb

ksec said:

Why hasnt Apple gone into property market?

I think there are bigger tax advantages to leasing.  Many big companies who have built their own office towers then sell them to a real estate venture who then lease them back to the company, the CBS "Black Rock" building in NYC being just one example.   

zoetmb

ksec said:

Why hasnt Apple gone into property market?

I think there are bigger tax advantages to leasing.  Many big companies who have built their own office towers then sell them to a real estate venture who then lease them back to the company, the CBS "Black Rock" building in NYC being just one example.   

zoetmb

ksec said:

Why hasnt Apple gone into property market?

I think there are bigger tax advantages to leasing.  Many big companies who have built their own office towers then sell them to a real estate venture who then lease them back to the company, the CBS "Black Rock" building in NYC being just one example.   

zoetmb

robin huber said:

My local store, Brea Mall in Cali, is crowded even on light days. During holiday seasons and release events it's jammed. More floor space would be great, though they just updated and moved spaces a couple of months ago. But what is really needed, even more than that, is some sound deadening materials. You literally cannot hear yourself think in there. Perhaps this is intended to create a sense of excitement, but conversations with staff are difficult. 

I agree.   The NYC Lincoln Center store is the same way.  It's all those hard surfaces: concrete floors, hard wood tables, glass ceilings, stone walls, glass displays, etc.  I don't think there's a soft surface in the store.   When Siri was first released, I went in there to try it out and it wouldn't work because of all the noise.  One time I walked in there and it sounded like there was a live band performing in the basement.  I went down there and it was just one of those portable amp/speaker systems for an iPod that someone left on a fairly loud volume.   

I think that aspect of the store design is a huge failure.   Once again, Apple caring more about how something looks than how something performs in daily use, 

But the Fifth Avenue store isn't as noisy because it has a completely different design.   And the SoHo store doesn't seem to have that problem either.  

lukei

ksec said:

Why hasnt Apple gone into property market?

Because it isn't core business, is a balance sheet item whereas leasing is a P&L item, they would need to be involved in building maintenance, other companies own shopping centres 

robin huber

cali said:

Man with all this money I feel like Apple should remodel/move all the small stores into iconic architectural masterpieces.

you have all these beautiful flagship stores and then the small ones in the mall that look no better than clothing store or restaurant next to it.

You have to go where shoppers are. In old cities the shopping district is amidst the old architectural gems. In  suburban shopping areas the oldest nearby architectural gem is a closed gas station. 

crowley

cali said:

crowley said:

Seems like a massive increase, where is the extra space coming from?

It's coming from the Apple Car.
/half S

Don't even understand the joke.

randominternetperson

zoetmb said:

I think that aspect of the store design is a huge failure.   Once again, Apple caring more about how something looks than how something performs in daily use, 

Given the incredible success of Apple retail stores, I wouldn't describe any part of it as a "huge failure."  And I completely disagree with your second sentence.  Apple cares deeply about, invests massive resources improving, how their products are used.  Apple also cares a lot about how they look, but it's secondary consideration.  To site just one example, critics say that Apple is obsessed by "thin" as if it's just a style thing; as others in these forums have eloquently pointed out, "thin and light" has many advantages that improve the products but are overlooked.

I expect there are people at Apple thinking hard about the retail experience and designing improvements with acoustics in mind.  But design is all about trade offs and (apparently) "fixing the noise problem" isn't near the top of the priority list.

ksec

lukei said:

ksec said:

Why hasnt Apple gone into property market?

Because it isn't core business, is a balance sheet item whereas leasing is a P&L item, they would need to be involved in building maintenance, other companies own shopping centres 

Out of the 500+ Retail store, and the more expansion coming in every year, surely they could put a dozen or so flagship retail store under their balance sheet. At the current rate they get their return of investment on average less 15 years, and it is better use of their Cash overseas.

On the Core business, Retail is part of their Services. It is the reason Apple have their own DC rather then continuing relying on Cloud, and they were late to realize they need the Cloud themselves.