Apple will take over a 23,000-square-foot space in Grand Central Station for a new Apple Store, the largest in the world. New York City's financial board is expected to approve a 10-year lease for the computing giant Monday.
In keeping with the company's general strategy, Apple apparently decided to put some serious design work into just its bid for the space. The company reportedly delivered the bid to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which runs Grand Central Station, in a linen-lined box as if the bid were an expensive gift. Presumably Apple will deliver the blueprints for the new store on a velvet pillow sometime soon.
With the cash Apple's laying down for the new store, the MTA might view the bid as a present as well. The lease will cost Apple $800,000 a year for the first ten years, which is more than half a million dollars a year more than the space's current owners. After the first ten years, Apple's rent is expected to jump to more than a million dollars a year.
Though people have already thrown around some Photoshop mockups for the new Apple Store, there's no word yet on what Apple's new store will actually look like. Presumably Apple won't take any design cues from the bootleg Apple Stores in China that were shut down over the weekend.
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