Roger Fingas
Apple could potentially sign a lease for real estate on Dublin's O'Connell Street, establishing its first-ever outlet in the country of Ireland, a report indicated on Friday.
Natrium — a consortium which bought the former Clerys department store at the location for €29 million ($32.6 million) — is trying to pitch Apple on the idea, Independent.ie said. Negotiations have allegedly been ongoing for several months.
Apple told The Irish Times that it has not announced a store for the site, but the company is often secretive about its retail plans until a store is already under construction.
The closure of Clerys in June was extremely controversial, firstly because the store was an iconic fixture of Dublin. Its loss put 460 people out of work, some of whom had been with the company for at least 40 years. Protests arose over the way terminations were handled.
Apple does have a store in Belfast in Northern Ireland, but none in the independent nation, despite it being a focal point of Apple's business. Facilities in and around Cork handle the company's European operations, iMac manufacturing, and international revenue, exploiting Irish loopholes to pay a minimum amount of taxes — something currently the focus of a European Commission investigation. Plans for a datacenter are awaiting approval.
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27 Comments
They missed out on the perfect building which was taken over by H&M just over a year ago. Nice size without being too large, much better location, nicer building with entrances on both sides of the block. This has historical pedigree, I guess. It's just out of the way in terms of Grafton Street which is the main shopping street in Dublin with more people with money walking around and a very busy pedestrian street. The north side has shopping streets too, so it's not like Cleary's is in the middle of nowhere. We'll honestly take any kind of store at this stage, even a fruit stand; anything!
This was the first purpose built department store in the world. Selfridges in London was based on it. So it really is an iconic place in Dublin. Meeting "under the Clerys clock" is a common phrase. Can't think of a better tenant than Apple for it.
Could it be? Is it finally happening? Have all my Christmasses come along together? Etc, etc, etc
However, the cynic in me says, "I'll believe it when I'm standing in the queue, ten minutes before opening, waiting for my new t-shirt".
Bring it on, Apple.