More Apple retail stores

Apple may be readying yet another store front in California. The company is finalizing a deal for a retail location in Santa Barbara, according source cited by the Santa Barbara News-Press . The report says that Apple will take over the Pier 1 Imports store at 928 State St. in about two months; the lease is said to be about $68,000 a month for a large 15,000 space on State Street, the center of the city's downtown shopping district. The location is just down the street from the Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and other retailers.

"I was not aware of this, but the Pier 1 store has been marketed as available," Mark Mattingly, executive vice president of Pacifica Commercial Realty of Santa Barbara, told the newspaper. "State Street is (still) very strong (for retailers). The Pier 1 store is big, some 15,000 square feet, and Apple's had a great year, (especially) with the iPhone."

A separate report says that the future Munich Apple store, the first in Germany, is at least six months from a grand opening. ifapplestore reports that the store at 1 Rosenstrasse in city center is "now only a partially-finished basement, carved into a row of three-story buildings. Photos show a tall construction crane just off the tourist destination Marienplatz, lifting materials over a construction barricade and into the huge site."

It will be only the second official Apple store in continental Europe, according to the report.

by MacNN Staff