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MTA Board Approves Apple, Shake Shack GCT Outposts
By
Garth Johnston
Published Jul 27, 2011
Modified Jul 27, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Jul 27, 2011
Modified Jul 27, 2011
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Well, that was fast! Just last week we broke the news that Danny Meyer's beloved Shake Shack was making a play for Grand Central Terminal and today the MTA's board has approved it at their meeting—even though it turns out it wasn't even the highest bidder for its lower concourse space. Also approved to roll into the famous train station? Apple, which was given some interesting guidelines for how its store can be laid out.
As previously reported, the massive, 23,000-square-foot new Apple store will be taking over the Metrazur space on the east balcony (they're paying the restaurant $5 million to leave its lease early) as well as the currently empty northeast balcony. The California computer company will be paying $800,000 for its first year of rent and then an additional $1.043 million a year for the remainder of its 10-year lease.
What is news, however, is that unlike its regular stores, Apple will not be building a glass structure around its showroom. Further the MTA is not letting apple put its merchandise or cashiers adjacent to the balcony's railings. This way visitors can still climb up and look out over the station. However the store will hang a single, glowing, Apple logo above its shop.
As for Shake Shack, its bid for the Zocalo space in the lower level Dining Concourse was not the highest (according to DNAinfo, it will pay "$435,000 for their first year, with the total gradually increasing to $567,000 in its last"), but the MTA believed the burger chain's popularity would help bring in business to the whole terminal.
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