“Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials offered a glimpse Monday morning at the Apple store proposed for the train station, near the terminal’s east staircase,” Andrew Grossman reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple plans to start building the gadget shop immediately, should the agency’s board give its approval Wednesday. Construction is expected to take about four months,” Grossman reports.
“Apple is paying Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant $5 million to vacate its space on the terminal’s east balcony more than eight years before its lease expires,” Grossman reports. “The MTA will get significantly higher annual rent: $1.1 million from Apple vs. $263,997 from Metrazur.”
Grossman reports, “In addition to the space currently occupied by Metrazur, Apple will move into an adjacent, currently vacant balcony on the northeast side of the terminal.”
Read more in the full article here.
Gary Allen reports for ifoAppleStore, “The MTA has issued guidelines for retailers within the Terminal, including sustainable design requirements, no exposed fluorescent lighting or artificial brick, and no obstructions of the existing glass by other materials. The requirements also prohibit, ‘materials that, in the Landlord’s opinion, are of low quality, non-durable, and/or difficult to maintain.'”
“The limitations also apply to interior signage, which cannot be iridescent, flashing, animated, formed plastic or neon. ‘All luminous signs are prohibited,’ the guidelines state. It’s not clear how this would apply to Apple’s white, back-lit logo,” Allen reports. “The architectural guidelines allow balcony restaurants to install raised flooring for plumbing and electrical service. It’s not clear what type of floor that Apple has proposed for its space. Walls and ceilings are completely protected and cannot be changed, nor can anything be attached to them.”
Allen reports, “Lighting is also regulated tightly, with the color temperature required to be 3000°K, to match the warm yellow interior lighting of the terminal. Apple’s renderings of the store have a decidedly yellow tint, perhaps acknowledging the MTA’s requirement.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Apple inks 10-year deal for world’s largest Apple Retail Store in Grand Central Terminal – July 23, 2011
NICE!
Outstanding, beautiful …sounds like it will be ready for the holiday season.
Very nice presentation that should look even better in real life.
Reminds me of a Mcdonalds in Bologna, Italy, where the locals insisted on something in keeping with the local heritage.
So the golden arches were completed very elegantly in gold leaf, set against a cool apple green logo.
It looked great – hope they haven’t changed it.
They have not and by the not being a fan of McDonalds I must say their burgers are far better there than in the US. D’accordo?
Oh typo again. Not being a fan of McDonalds I must admit their burgers are far better there than in the US. Every now and then I have a craving for junk food, and Bologna which many aren’t aware of is fabulous for Lasagna (real thing) and Tortellini as well as a big Mac for the culturally deprived!
Agreed, great presentation, but to make it more correct, they should multiply the number of prople in the renderings by at least a factor of thirty.
Makes sense. If you’ve got millions of people going through there all the time, better to sell them an iPad and a MacBook than to sell them a soup and a sandwich.
terrible acustics
if Apple had existed in 1959, perhaps Cary Grant in the movie North by Northwest could have ducked into the Grand Central Station Apple store before jumping onto the 20th Century Limited.
…and picked up the ‘as of then not conceived’ iphone with gps to get him and eva marie out of harm’s way and out of lincoln’s nose and call for help….
The most amazing bit in this story is that Apple kicked out (actoually, bought out!) Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur (a rather upscale restaurant) 8 years before end of lease, and even worse (or better), they’ll be paying four times more in rent than the restaurant. This tells me that Apple was determined to get this location at ANY cost.
On the other hand, as we know, 5th Avenue store rakes in over $30k per square foot annually (more than double the next highest retailer, Tiffany’s). If the rent for this 23,000 sqft space is about $45 per sqft, and the revenue ends up anything near that 5th Ave store, they’ll be paying their rent from the money they make on iPod shuffles they sell there…
“The requirements also prohibit, ‘materials that, in the Landlord’s opinion, are of low quality, non-durable, and/or difficult to maintain.’”
I guess a Microsoft store is out of the question…
+1
Holy BLEEEEEEP
It’s the Church of Jobs
Reminds me of Hogwarts.