Apple Store Opens In Grand Central Station New York:
In a massively bold move by Apple, they are going to be bringing their newest store to the big Apple right at the heart of it’s Grand Central Terminal.
A huge 23,000 square foot of space will be dedicated to the Apple store, with Apple rumoured to be earning more per square foot than their nearest rival Tiffany’s by a factor of 4 or 5, this will surely only help Apple line their insanely profitable coffers even more.
The owner of the electronics retail area in the terminal is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and they state that Apple will be paying $180 per square foot, just less than the top figure which they pay for their Manhattan train hub store at $200 per square foot.
Apple make use of Grand Central’s East balcony:
It was deemed by the MTA that obtaining rent for an under used area of the station would make total sense, and this contract will quadrupled the rent collected for the East balcony area at Grand Central Station, which is famed for it’s night sky ceiling.
Footfall to increase in general:
There will be pass on benefits to the other businesses who operate in the terminal, as footfall is expected to pass the current 750,000 daily figure that it currently delivers, such is the attraction of Apple stores.
Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant was the last tenant in that space and was paid a handsome $5 million to leave the position for Apple to sign their 10 year lease, Apple will then invest another $2.5 million to make the store look, well pretty much like all the rest, but we are sure there will be some key glass features and such like that will add a signature element to the homogenised nature of all Apple stores.
Apple will be “anchor” tenant:
Apple will serve as an anchor tenant in the station meaning that the store will be considered an attraction for people who are not even using the terminal for travel purposes, this will be seen to benefit the area for the tenants in general but in typical Apple ways they will not be tied into a revenue share model for the turnover the store creates unlike the other tenants in Grand Central Terminal, and why would you, if you could get away with it, when you earn more per square foot than any other retail space on the planet, and command silly amounts of people daily just to gawp at your products!
Anthony Munns