AppleInsider Staff
A new rumor claims Apple has leased a large part of the Broadway Trade Center, a five-story, 1.1 million-square-foot building located in downtown Los Angeles, Calif., and is looking to convert the space into a mini campus complete with Apple Store.
Citing an anonymous tipster, the Downtown Examiner reported last week that Apple has signed a lease for "several hundred thousand square-feet" of space in the building, but offered no expected move-in date.
As far as how the gigantic area will be used, there are rumblings of a multi-use "campus" with offices, residential and retail space. Aside from a flagship Apple Store, a portion of the plot could be earmarked for a shop dedicated to Beats by Dre hardware, the site said.
According to ifoAppleStore, the location currently plays host to multiple swap meet style shops on the ground floors and a light manufacturer on the upper levels. Noting Apple's penchant for leasing in up-and-coming locales, the website points to an initiative called "Bringing Back Broadway," a ten-year plan to revitalize the historic Broadway area with theaters, commercial space and even a streetcar.
The Broadway Trade Center started life in 1908 as the Hamburger department store, which incorporated a restaurant, grocery store, post office, roof garden, theater and physician's office. Department store chain May Co. purchased the building in 1923 and later built on the property with a connected nine-story tower and one of the first parking garages in the U.S.
In 1979, the U.S. National Park Service listed the Broadway Theater and Commercial District in the National Register of Historic Places (PDF link), saying the Broadway Trade Center (then May Co.) is an architectural landmark "contributing character" to the area.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times in April, the building was purchased in 2014 for an estimated $115 million to $130 million by New York real estate investment firm Waterbridge Capital.
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24 Comments
Hey it's only a rumor so I can speculate too right ? I wonder if, rather than Apple leasing the building, might Waterbridge Capital have really been fronting for Apple in the purchase?
T'would bring much cred to the long-developing arts community downtown. The nearest Apple stores I can think of are about eight miles in Glendale, which is like traveling to the last century. That would be to either the co-original Apple retail location in the Galleria, now orphaned by a larger store nearby in the themed "Americana" Caruso development that risks sending one into existential despair. Apple's mindshare value would go up tremendously with a store in downtown LA. The city simply has no other central core for the arts, in my opinion. If they could recapture the feel of the original 1906 department store interior, that would be just amazing.
[quote name="digitalclips" url="/t/183373/apple-rumored-to-turn-huge-downtown-la-building-into-flagship-store-office-space#post_2638205"]Hey it's only a rumor so I can speculate too right ? I wonder if, rather than Apple leasing the building, might Waterbridge Capital have really been fronting for Apple in the purchase?[/quote] Great idea, hopefully someone will look into it. This topic already woke me up too early, so i'm bailing.
[quote name="Flaneur" url="/t/183373/apple-rumored-to-turn-huge-downtown-la-building-into-flagship-store-office-space#post_2638206"]T'would bring much cred to the long-developing arts community downtown. The nearest Apple stores I can think of are about eight miles in Glendale, which is like traveling to the last century. That would be to either the co-original Apple retail location in the Galleria, now orphaned by a larger store nearby in the themed "Americana" Caruso development that risks sending one into existential despair. Apple's mindshare value would go up tremendously with a store in downtown LA. The city simply has no other central core for the arts, in my opinion. If they could recapture the feel of the original 1906 department store interior, that would be just amazing.[/quote] I believe the next closest Apple Store is in Manhattan Beach at the mall.
Hey it's only a rumor so I can speculate too right ? I wonder if, rather than Apple leasing the building, might Waterbridge Capital have really been fronting for Apple in the purchase?
Except Apple already has a property front company, Braeburn Capital.