September 28, 2007
Could Georgetown Be Getting an Apple Store?
We've known for the last year that famous Georgetown eatery Nathan's wasn't long for its current location. Owner Carol Joynt has been pretty open about her plans to relocate by April 2009, when her lease runs out. Since then, speculation as to what kind of business will nab the prime spot on what's seen as the toney neighborhood's most important intersection has been a popular topic. This morning, an alert tipster pointed us to this tidbit, which suggests that an Apple Store might be eying the space.
Apple is now finalizing a real estate deal for a flagship store on what’s called “the best corner of the most powerful city in the world,” at Wisconsin and M Street NW in the city’s Georgetown area. The space at 3501 M Street NW is now occupied by the legendary Nathan’s Restaurant, a Zagat-rated, wood-paneled hang-out for those who crave American classic cuisine. The restaurant’s lease expires in April 2009, and the operation will vacate before year’s end, leaving a 2,500 square-foot lot for Apple to develop.Is it true?
"News to me and my lawyers at Williams & Connolly," Joynt said. "What I'd last heard was that it would be T-Mobile. [Developer] Herb Miller called to say he'd heard rumors that Apple was interested, but my landlords have told us nothing. In the past six months they have fielded offers from CitiBank, Juicy Couture, Verizon, Commerce Bank, any number of fast food chains."
This doesn't necessarily mean the rumors aren't true, however. In the meantime, we'll keep digging around to find out more. If it happened, it would be the first Apple Store within the District -- though other flagship stores exist in nearby Arlington, Tysons Corner and Bethesda.
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Apple = garbage.
I'd rather they open up a used condom store rather than a store that will attract even more snobby Eurotrash to the area.
Maybe it's true. The Mac Observer is reporting the same...
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/09/28.7.shtml
Apple store will complete Mst attempt to be the exact replica of the 2nd level at Tyson’s Mall.
it's interesting. a comment on that mac observer site says that apple would be silly to open up in DC because of our 'strict consumer protection laws'. how about researching that as well and letting us know what they're talking about.
If you'd bothered to check the 25 September entry on Caroly Joynt's blog, you'd see she basically confirms that Apple wants the space bad.
I got a call this evening from a well placed source in DC development who wanted me to know that the Apple computer store is trying seriously to get my space. In fact, that they may already have inked the deal with my landlords. So, you know, woe is me. When I'm trying to stay focused on an interview the last thing I want is to have to stare into the dark, deep and scary abyss of eviction and unemployment. The sweet, sweet thing about The Q&A Cafe is that I love it so much, it speaks to me so well, that when I'm in that zone I feel in control and safe.
Thanks to Apple, I'm not feeling so safe and secure tonight ... as I write this on a Mac, alas.
What Steve Jobs wants, he gets.
Hrm. I thought I hit up TUAW.com for a second there. I think that gets us the highest number of Apple Stores in a small area? Tyson's, Clarendon, Pentagon City, Bethesda Row, Montgomery Mall, Towson and Columbia. I feel a little dirty writing this from an IBM/Lenovo.
How can there be multiple "flagship" stores in the area?
an apple store, whatever its faults may be, is def much better than a freaking commerce bank.
EVERY Apple store is a flagship store. Kinda like how every kid in Special Olypics is a winner! YAY! FLAGSHIP STORE! YAY! WAFFLES!
Just what we need in Georgetown. Another contingent of hipster employees with a smug sense of superiority.
Of course, that sign that says "Genius Bar" doesn't help.
demnfafa, i think you may be confusing hipsters with just plain old nerds.
i would have thought that penn quarter would have been a better location.....
Sad to see Nathan's go, but good Lord *anything* is better than a freaking T-Mobile store. Who goes into cell phone stores anyway? Does anyone actually do that?
M St. just flat out sucks anymore, there's no character. It's just an open-air mall in a historic locale, nothing more.
So what? What's wrong with an open-air mall in a historic location? What was on M Street before that was so great? I'd rather have a bunch of chain stores there than have to go out to Virginia or Maryland for a decently-priced pair of shoes or jeans. Local boutiques are great, but sometimes you just really want to go to Anthropologie - and if you don't have a car, Tyson's feels like it's in another country.
Annapolis also has an Apple store.
The Arlington, Tyson's Corner, and Bethesda locations aren't flagship stores. A flagship store implies a combination of architecture and size that is lacking in all of those. Elsewhere on the site, ifoAppleStore says,
It'd be nice to have a flagship store, but frankly it'd just be nice to have more stores in general. I've barely been able to move the past couple times I've been in one of the stores we already have.
This is irritating. It's easier for me to get to the Pentagon City location via Metro than my most means to Georgetown. I was really hoping for one to open in Gallery Place, perhaps the newly vacant Benetton space. Although, I'm fairly certain that is set to become a flagship AT&T store. They would still get most of the tourist foot traffic that ends up in Georgetown anyway.
Even better... The DCUSA site. Forget about the Whole Foods/Trader Joe's/Ross dispute! Bring in Apple! I'm kidding of course. Oh, if I could only walk by a pretentious pretty Apple Store on my way to and from work everyday I would be complete.
Guest 14: "So what? What's wrong with an open-air mall in a historic location?"
I'll tell you what's wrong: a host of stores you could find in Anytown, USA, that's what's wrong. In places like Columbia Heights, what's going in is a clear improvement over what was there before...but in Georgetown, the character is being lost and replaced by sterile suburban mall-style homogenity. Perhaps people don't mind that so much, but I'm inclined to agree with Nathan's owner, who remarked about what's going on in Georgetown (paraphrasing): "Some day, people are going to wake up and say, what were we thinking?"
Can someone please fill me on on what is officially "cool" or "indie" or "hip" or whatever these days. Because as I read the comments here it seems like it is the height of neo-urban cool sophistication to use a Mac and and Ipod, but the epitome of gauche suburban-SUVism to buy one at an Apple Store.
its cool to use a mac, and an ipod, just not to actually sully yourself by shopping for one.
wake up, you're so uncool.
you need to go to and be seen in indie electronic manufacturers store.
like... uh.... well.. you know...
and it should be in like brentwood or congress heights or something....
#18
Thats what happens when suburban kids move to the city to play urbanite.
"Thats what happens when suburban kids move to the city to play urbanite."
As opposed to the real DC urbanites that have given us 50 years of one of the worst cities in the US, a capital that most of the US is embarassed of, a school system that is among the worst in the country, crack wars, Marion Barry, Sharon Pratt Kelly, any neighborhood east of the Anacostia River, etc etc etc.
I say the MORE suburbanites with $$ that move into the DC and displace the "locals" the better. The locals had their chances. Now they can go move to Charles County and turn that place into a third world hell-hole. Of course, when they ruin Southern Maryland (the way they ruined DC and PG County) they won't have the old "no statehood" excuse to fall back on.
#22 -
Go buy and read a basic urban economics textbook before you spout that nonsense. That is, if you can walk without the your knee-jerk throwing you into traffic. You were born with more than a brain stem. Use it.
I'll still buy my new Mac, an iPhone, and assorted software and accessories in Virginia at the more convenient Pentagon City Apple store to take advantage of the lower sales tax rate.
#4: You can skip the comments at the Mac Observer and retain at least 20 IQ points. No one has stricter consumer protection laws and a class action lawsuit populace than California -- which of course is home to Apple and has several of its stores. Including Flagship stores in every major shopping destination around the Bay Area to name just one California region. If consumer protection laws were something to prevent Apple from opening stores — they wouldn't be in their own backyard.