Apple Store

I didn’t have a chance on Friday to swing by the Apple Store in Grand Central. Even though my office is a few blocks away, the day just slipped away from me. Over the weekend, with Santacon descending upon the city and vistors flocking to the new store, Grand Central looked like a madhouse, and it’ll probably stay that way through the end of the holiday season. So if crowds aren’t your thing, beware.

The MTA, though, in an effort to highlight the new store and combat some lunacy from our politicians, can take you on a tour. On Friday afternoon, the authority released the above video on YouTube. It features Jeffrey Rosen, the MTA Director of Real Estate, discussing the way the new store fits in with the historic train station. His defense of the new store is more subtle than Pete Donohue’s, which properly chides our politicians for pettiness even as they allow the state to strip MTA funding with nary a protest.

Even if Apple products aren’t your thing, the new store allows for some great views of the main hall at Grand Central that were formerly limited only to patrons of Metrazur. For the views alone, it’ll be worth it to check out the space once the crowds die down.

Once a restaurant, soon an Apple Store.

As Thanksgiving morphed into Black Friday a few days ago, the transit stories were dominated by something that didn’t happen. Despite rumors stretching back into the spring, Apple did not open its Grand Central flagship store by the time the day of sales rolled around. Instead, construction has continued apace, and the computer giant finally revealed its temporary signage at the former Metrazur space.

According to reports on 9to5mac, an Apple insider blog, rumors are now percolating of a December 9 opening date. That’s just a week and a half away now and still within the frenzied month of shopping that feeds into Christmas. Grand Central, already overrun with tourists during the holiday season, will soon play temporary host to legions of iPad-toting technologists as well.

For Apple and the MTA, the deal for the space is one made in fiscal heaven. Apple paid Metrazur, the restaurant that once called the mezzanine home, $5 million to terminate its lease early, and the deal with the MTA is a lucrative one. Apple will pay at least $800,000 a year for the space and another $300,000 for ancillary storage facilities. The MTA believes the mere presence of Apple could boost sales to other businesses in the landmarked terminal by a few million a year as well.

But what of the store itself? Does it fit in with the ethos of Grand Central Terminal and what it has become in the years after its renovation and renaissance?

A few weeks ago, my dad and I had lunch at the Oyster Bar, another iconic Grand Central locale, and our discussion turned toward the Apple Store. My dad, who has seen his favorite New York stores — the Tower Records locations, the local bookstores, anything on the Upper West Side that isn’t a bank or a Starbucks or a Gap — close over the years, wasn’t too impressed with a corporate behemoth of an Apple Store opening up in Grand Central.

When the MTA renovated the space and agreed to lease it to the restaurants, the balcony spaces were to be open for all as an open-air display of grandiosity and good food. With an understated presence, Metrazur simply blended in, and my dad wondered if the Apple store would do the same. Of course, Metrazur wasn’t exactly an egalitarian restaurant. Lunch combination plates started at $27 with prix fixe dinners topping $50 — before drinks. These weren’t Aureole prices, but they were steep enough.

The Apple Store, on the other hand, is a transient place. To those of us in my generation, the Apple Store is a public realm where we can take a break to check our email, browse the Internet or look up nearby attractions or restaurants. We don’t have to pay $12 for a Caesar Salad just to enjoy the views from the Apple Store; rather, we can walk in, look around and walk out without paying a dime. As long as Apple keeps its own signature stylings to a minimum, it’s hard to imagine a space as all-encompassing and welcoming as a computer store opening up in Grand Central.

The ultimate issue with the incoming Apple Store won’t concern the ease of access though. Rather, it will concern crowds. How will Grand Central cope with an influx of people streaming toward the Apple Store as harried commuters rush to and from their trains? What happens on days with big product launches when the lines at other Apple Stores stretch for blocks and blocks? How can the world’s largest computer retailer co-exist with the nation’s busiest rail terminal? The Apple Store will be open space for the public to use, and perhaps as they climb those stores, they can stop to appreciate the rest of what makes Grand Central so grand.