Early 2009 store plans

Apple has already begun its retail store expansion plans for 2009, with photos emerging of construction in Greensboro, NC, along with a building approval for a long-awaited Georgetown location and several international locations, including Brighton in the UK, and Ottawa, Canada. A tipster who observed workers building the Greensboro store notes that the workers were standing on what appeared to be a palette with a railing made from 2x4s.

According to ifoAppleStore, Apple is finally moving forward with opening a Churchill Square store in Brighton, after a long delay. Job listings were posted for the store in 2007, but while this would typically foreshadow an opening, nothing else was announced. The store may be open by late summer; also due around the same time is a Rideau Center location in Canada's capital city of Ottawa, just a few blocks away from Parliament Hill.

Apple is additionally said to have received approval to re-design the store located at 1229 Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, after being denied several times by a District of Columbia architectural commission. The design previously offered by Apple included a two-level glass storefront -- paired with stainless steel and a back-lit Apple logo -- but was said not to match the neighborhood's architectural character. A third design has been approved by the ANC however, and will have a one-story interior with a two-story exterior, the latter having an all-glass storefront for the first level. The interior should feature an atrium with planted trees. Planned changes are so dramatic, though, that the current building is slated to be demolished to make way for a new one. If approved by the Old Georgetown Board, a new shop could open by late 2009.

by MacNN Staff