Philly Store Under Construction, Utah Store Hit by Burglars – Apple Retail

ifoAppleStore has picked up on an old, but “rekindled” rumor of Philadelphia's first Apple retail store being under construction. The source dealing exclusively with news and information about Apple's retail stores also has a story on burglars driving into a Utah store, running away with tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods.

Philly store
”MacNN Web site has rekindled hopes of a downtown Philadelphia (Penn.) store with an insider’s tip that Apple has signed a lease for a space in a Walnut Street building,” the source posting the latest Apple retail news says. “The tipster identifies the location as 1619 Walnut Street, a six-story building.” Allegedly, IFO tipsters identified the building themselves some three years ago.

According to the findings, the most recent purpose of the the 39,000 square-foot building was to house an upscale restaurant on the ground floor, and offices on floors above. Reportedly, the restaurant's owner closed on January 2, negotiating a renewal buy-out option with the owner of the building. The reason? Money!

While the restaurant business was nabbing a good $19 per square-foot for the landlord, he now hopes to attract businesses eager to pay the $57 per square-foot going rate for the Walnut Street area. According to real estate records, the ground, second and third levels are available – the ideal setting for a signature-Apple store.

In the 1960s, the building housed Westinghouse Broadcasting and later the television station KYW. It dates from 1937, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Buildings. The building is worth well over $7 million.

Burglars hit store, literally
“An unknown number of burglars drove a red Honda Civic into the front window of The Gateway (Salt Lake City) retail store early this morning, and made off with $20,000 of computers, iPods and other merchandise,” the same reliable source reveals. According to Utah local police, the attack occurred at 4:30 a.m., when the burglars “maneuvered along the street, turned past the Z Gallerie store, and sped between a flower bed and metal benches, missing a nearby water pond.”

While there may be surveillance videos of the suspects, there is little information about the actual vehicle used for the job. While the police search for the burglars, workers will reportedly need months of repairing to get the store's glass facade back into its original state.