Apple Store Watch: Downtown More Likely Than W'burg
This week has seen a couple more strikes against the prospect of Apple setting up shop in Williamsburg. Instead, it’s looking more and more like Downtown Brooklyn will be the spot. At Wednesday’s quarterly Brooklyn Heights Real Estate Roundtable at the Brooklyn Historical Society on Wednesday, Jeff Winick of Winick Realty, Apple’s broker, called the…
This week has seen a couple more strikes against the prospect of Apple setting up shop in Williamsburg. Instead, it’s looking more and more like Downtown Brooklyn will be the spot. At Wednesday’s quarterly Brooklyn Heights Real Estate Roundtable at the Brooklyn Historical Society on Wednesday, Jeff Winick of Winick Realty, Apple’s broker, called the chatter about an Apple store in North Brooklyn “a bad rumor,” while Michael Stoller, writing in yesterday’s NY Sun, reported that Marty Markowitz has been pushing hard for the tech giant to come to Downtown Brooklyn. (Nordstrom’s, Saks and H&M are also all mentioned as potential Downtown tenants.) This comes on the heels of Joe Chan’s suggestion last month that Apple would be the dream tenant for the Municipal Building at Joralemon and Court, were the city to go through with the idea of clearing out the clerical workers currently occupying the space.
Downtown Brooklyn Finally Arrives [NY Sun]
Real Estate Round-Up: 10/24/07 [Brooklyn Eagle]
I’d rather have a Nordstrom!
Would love an Apple store downtown. And by the way, screw Whole Foods, and particularly screw Trader Joe’s. Whole Foods is a helluva lot better than our Associated/Key/Ctown dumps, but ridiculously overpriced and limited in selection (and let’s face it: organic soda and recycled paper towels suck). TJs is just plain lame–it’s basically a place to buy cheap-ass wine and frozen hors d’ouevres in bulk for a party. I’m mystified at people’s excitement over that stupid place. What we need is a Fairway. Best grocery store I have ever seen. Locally owned, full of NYC personality, great prices, and amazing selection of gourmet AND normal food. What’s not to like?
And to continue 11:28’s point, isn’t the original Apple store in Soho an old post office building? They did a beautiful job there integrating a modern interior into a historic building.
But that said, I just don’t understand people’s obsession with Apple stores. They always look so…understocked to me. More about promoting their brand and coolness than offering a large selection of useful merchandise. Admittedly, I’m a PC user who doesn’t buy into the cult of Apple…but I’m not trying to start an argument here. Just honestly curious how useful/important this kind of retail is. Esp. considering it doesn’t cater to a large percentage of the computer-using–i.e., PC–market…
11:10 what are you talking about? ever been to europe? old buildings architecture and modern design/products are the coolest thing you can do when is done nicely and apple knows how to do things that way, I welcome them anywhere they decided to move in.
Am I the only one who doesn’t care about having an Apple store in my nabe? Or is not so much about the Apple store itself but rather that major “it” brands are starting to see Brooklyn as a destination? If so, yeah, that’s cool, and if so, then, yeah, D’Town Bklyn is a better place for that than W’burg.
The W’burg bank space is TOTALLY inappropriate for Apple. The architecture is completely at odds with their modern look, and cannot be modified. Not going to happen. Further, it’s on the worst intersection in the United States, only to get worse.
That would MOST definately be a great addition to the “NEW” Downtown Brooklyn plan. There hasn’t been a true electronics store down there since The Wiz . I can’t stand the Apple Store on 5th , it’s ALWAYS crowded and it’s hard to really see anything for the kids that come in to play around .
Black and Hispanic money is just as green as white people’s. That’s why Fulton Mall has high rent. All those black and Hispanic (and white) people buying things. You don’t have to like it or shop there, the rest of NYC is wide open.
I would certainly like to see some of these stores be in an area like Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn. There are several empty storefronts and some dillapidated buildings there that could be utlizied for retail. Also, these stores moving to an area already designanted for such commercial development seems approrpiate. I don’t want to see a Whole Foods or an Apple store on Fulton Street in Clinton Hill or on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. That would be silly and out of scale with such a low-rise neighborhood. We can preserve neighborhoods AND have the ammenities we want by making sure that the stores end up in large-retail designated areas and not in our quaint little brownstone neighborhoods. That’s why we have downtown sectors zoned for large retail and office space. I love the idea of a growing and active downtown that is a comfortable 10-20 minute walk or bus ride for all of the folks in their surrounding neighborhoods. I hope more restaurants- like the recent announcement of Amy Ruth’s, or the beloved institution of Junior’s- come to downtown Brooklyn. I’d love to go down there on Friday night for dinner, catch a movie and walk home.
Plus, we aren’t talking about shutting down mom and pop coffee shops for a Starbucks. There are no mom and pop computer stores! I have to go to Manhattan if I want browse for an accessory for my apple computer. The grocery stores in my neighborhood lack a lot of goods that I like. If they carried them, I wouldn’t go out of my way to go to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods in Manhattan. If my local grocery store won’t carry those items, I’d rather at least shop at a WF/TJ closer in Brooklyn that’s only a bus ride away than trekking to Union Square on a busy weekend. I can’t afford to do all of my shopping at such stores, so I only go 1-2x/month and am a patron at my local grocery store on a weekly basis for the other things I need. Brooklyn needs more grocery stores. There’s no denying that.