Apple to grow and revamp Century City store in LA with mall's $1B expansion
Apple is reportedly taking advantage of a $1 billion overhaul at Los Angeles's Westfield Century City mall on Santa Monica Boulevard to launch a new, much larger store in the facility.
The shop will be based in the center of the mall, next to a Peloton outlet and across from Rolex, according to a MacRumors source. Westfield is planning to complete its renovations by the end of 2017, which could mean the Apple store will be ready by then or shortly thereafter.
A photo of a black construction facade suggests the new shop will be dramatically bigger than the current Century City location, which dates back to 2005. Apple is now a much wealthier company, and the existing store is likely both overcrowded and lacking in space to showcase every product, much less host Today at Apple events.
An official photo of the present Century City store.
The rumor would fit in with broader Apple retail trends, which in most circumstances have seen U.S. spending concentrate on renovations and relocations rather than new stores. Even the company's Fifth Avenue outlet in New York City is undergoing an expansion, despite the costs of building underground and its status as a major tourist destination.
There are some exceptions. Major new outlets are coming to the Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C., and Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the latter of which will be ready Oct. 20.
The shop will be based in the center of the mall, next to a Peloton outlet and across from Rolex, according to a MacRumors source. Westfield is planning to complete its renovations by the end of 2017, which could mean the Apple store will be ready by then or shortly thereafter.
A photo of a black construction facade suggests the new shop will be dramatically bigger than the current Century City location, which dates back to 2005. Apple is now a much wealthier company, and the existing store is likely both overcrowded and lacking in space to showcase every product, much less host Today at Apple events.
An official photo of the present Century City store.
The rumor would fit in with broader Apple retail trends, which in most circumstances have seen U.S. spending concentrate on renovations and relocations rather than new stores. Even the company's Fifth Avenue outlet in New York City is undergoing an expansion, despite the costs of building underground and its status as a major tourist destination.
There are some exceptions. Major new outlets are coming to the Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C., and Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the latter of which will be ready Oct. 20.
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Apple is reportedly taking advantage of a $1 billion overhaul at Los Angeles's Westfield Century City mall on Santa Monica Boulevard to launch a new, much larger store town square in the facility.
The shop town square will be based in the center of the mall, next to a Peloton outlet and across from Rolex, according to a MacRumors source. Westfield is planning to complete its renovations by the end of 2017, which could mean the Apple store town square will be ready by then or shortly thereafter.
A photo of a black construction facade suggests the new shop town square will be dramatically bigger than the current Century City location, which dates back to 2005. Apple is now a much wealthier company, and the existing store town square is likely both overcrowded and lacking in space to showcase every product, much less host Today at Apple events.
An official photo of the present Century City store town square.
The rumor would fit in with broader Apple retail trends, which in most circumstances have seen U.S. spending concentrate on renovations and relocations rather than new stores town squares. Even the company's Fifth Avenue outlet town square in New York City is undergoing an expansion, despite the costs of building underground and its status as a major tourist destination.
There are some exceptions. Major new outlets town squares are coming to the Carnegie Library in Washington, D.C., and Michigan Avenue in Chicago, the latter of which will be ready Oct. 20.
I'm not sure if you're poking fun at Apple's new name for their stores, but you're right.... they are now called Town Squares. What happens when they have a circular store, though? Do they call it Town Round?
It was my understanding that traditional
mall Stores/non Apple buildings were Stores but actual Apple buildings with events and meeting spots were Town Squares.
With the news that ToyRUS has filed for Chapter 11
FCUK is more than likely soon to follow as is BestBuy
it seems that the score so far is
Amazon 10 Retail 0
It seems that the only bright spot is Apple but for how long? Perhaps this move to make the store more of a destination is an attempt to counter the Amazonification of Retail?
If Ms Arenhardt (is listening) and insists on spending money burning a hole in her purse and wanting to go bigger, then move and most def bring back the little stage/presentation area that brought good crowds for bands using Apple software, great tech presentations, training space for classes. In this town THAT is communal.
And more advanced staff.
The other factor is that mall stores pretty much carry the same crappy Chinese- or Indian-manufactured lookalike merchandise. There might be different brands, but it's all pretty much generic. Consumers are tired of it and don't need 200 stores in a mall selling similar stuff.
People also have way too much stuff. One of the growth industries in the U.S. is storage units. I've seen a ton of them being built in Brooklyn. When you have so much stuff that it no longer fits in one's home, you don't need more stuff.
Another factor is that there are simply too many malls. These were built by competing real-estate interests who had unrealistic expectations about how many malls an area could take. There are areas in Long Island where branches of the same chain exist within a mile of each other. That's absurd in an area where people only drive. Same in New Jersey. What was the point of nearby competing malls with exactly the same stores?
The malls that will survive are those that will turn themselves into entertainment and health centers. You'll see amusement rides, performance stages, movie theaters, (although those are in big trouble as well), music venues, healthcare, daycare (for the elderly as well as children), maybe even schools and/or adult education services all in the mall. Those that don't probably won't survive. Having said that, people don't only go to a mall to shop. They go to a mall because it gets one out of the house and it's something to do. Especially in regions where there isn't much else.
So there's going to be a lot of pain and many retailers will close and many malls, especially older malls, will close. But many other malls will survive and in spite of the fact that one can easily order any Apple product online, the Apple stores I've been to are always crowded and people obviously like to be there. It's always been a bit of a mystery to me as to why, since what is it really: it's just a bunch of parsons tables with computers, phones and pads on top, usually with a concrete floor and glass or other hard surfaces on the walls, which makes it incredibly noisy. Aside from the one-on-one and the few stores with presentation areas, it's not particularly friendly or comfortable, but consumers do seem to love it.
But who knows, maybe if a lot of malls close, it will bring back Main Street. That would be a huge benefit to a lot of places as it brings back life to the center of towns where people walk and interact with each other.