Spokane7
65°
May 27, 2010 in Business, City
Permits reveal Apple’s plan for downtown Spokane store
Trend-setting retailer Apple Inc. is listed as the tenant on city building permits that indicate the company will move into the space vacated by Eddie Bauer in downtown Spokane.
Permits filed by contractors to remodel the two-story site, at 710 W. Main, are on file online at Spokane’s building permit site. Apple is listed as the tenant.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has been advertising for retail workers on job site Monster.com, but Apple has refused to say whether or when it would open a retail store in Spokane.
The building permits list the location as River Park Square. Cowles Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review, also owns River Park Square.
The permits do not list a store opening date.
Apple’s popular computer and entertainment products, such as the iPhone and iPod, have turned it into a coveted retailer. Spokane retailers have said landing an Apple store in Spokane would be a coup. The company — which on Wednesday overtook Microsoft as the largest technology company in the world by market capitalization — selects locations for stores based on demographics including disposable income and concentration of college students.
Apple has more than 200 stores worldwide and five in Washington, all on the west side. Currently Idaho has none.
Also listed online is an approved permit to remodel the interior of the former Eddie Bauer space. That permit, issued to a Carlsbad, Calif., construction firm, says the shell work comes to an estimated $400,000.
Stephen Pohl, River Park Square manager, would not comment on Apple’s plans. He said mall officials are talking with “a number of potential candidates” for that location.
Garco awarded $35.8 million Joint Base Lewis-McChord contract 
lewis8457 on May 27 at 2:34 p.m.
I just cant believe Apple thinks Spokane has the numbers to make a store of their type work here. Ii have been to the Apple store in Portland and it is cool but Portland has a more diverse work force, and many more people.
de3 on May 27 at 2:48 p.m.
It is good news that Apple has finally chosen to open an Apple Store here.
The bad news is that the Spokane market ranked sufficiently low that it took 9 years since Apple opened its first store before opening one in Spokane.
Political leadership remains stuck on stupid, still thinking we are the cutting edge prototypical community of tomorrow. Perhaps if they grounded themselves back in the reality of where we really are, we’d be able to make believable plans for real economic growth, not just more retail and low skilled jobs, or government, health care and education (almost 40% of the workers here and basically funded by taxpayers).
spokanada on May 27 at 3:09 p.m.
Lewis, Apple probably based some of their decision to locate to Spokane on internet sales and sales from Best buy which carries Apple products. Apple is now the largest technology company in the world. I think there is a market for their products in Spokane
spokanecougar on May 27 at 5:46 p.m.
Thank god now I don’t have to go to the horrible and over priced crap store known as Best Buy and deal with the idiots who work there to buy my Apple products.
Thank you Apple and welcome to Spokane.
misjustice on May 27 at 11:48 p.m.
Apple Inc., welcome to cow town; where even good news is perceived as bad news! But, oh well, you’ll figure it out soon enough…
eagleproducer on May 31 at 9:08 a.m.
The ten grand at four dollars a share I put into Apple in 1994 is looking reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllly good these days!
Thanks for buying all those I-pods folks, now run out and buy their clearly superior computers.
Once Mac you don’t go back!
steveberde on May 31 at 9:10 p.m.
I imagine in spite of the negatives put forth by some, Apple has done their own analysis of what this market can support and what it can’t - hopefully there are enough people in the Spokane area that have a positive attitude and help make the store a success.
We are fortunate to be one of the “select” few to gain an Apple store - other cities would “kill” for one - it speaks volumes for our city, despite the naysayers that show up from time to time and show their true selves.
It’s also a credit to Riverpark Square that they can attract retaiers of this caliber.
Steve
mikewsu on June 01 at 1:33 p.m.
I’m not sure Riverpark Square had much to do with bringing Apple into Spokane.
I bet it was as simple as them happening to have a street-front vacancy at the right time. I could of seen the Apple store going in across the street if something else opened up, as long as it was on the street in that core downtown area with walking traffic.
As for Spokane not having the numbers, I’ve been to Apple stores in much smaller towns, like San Luis Obispo, CA — a small college town on the central CA coast. Spokane has 1mil +/- in the metro area and how many colleges?
I think mostly Apple was waiting for a good location to open up. A Spokane store has been talked about and rumored for a few years now. When it finally opens it should be really nice with a 400k remodel budget.
de3 on June 02 at 9:05 a.m.
mikewsu - Spokane County has about 470,000 total population, not +/- 1 million “in the metro area”. But you are correct that many smaller towns have had Apple Stores.
The main issue is the demographics of the local population. Spokane’s demographics did not rank high in the priority list for new Apple stores as we are neither a techie community nor a rich community that buys based on product quality or image. (I am typing this on my Apple computer so I think I just called myself a snob…)
We are more like a Wal-Mart, WinCo or K-Mart community that looks for the lowest price.
A smaller college town, like San Luis Obispo, with the California State Polytechnic University, has many students with technical inclinations, funded by LA and SF Bay area parents with 2x to 3x the salary of Spokane, and a relatively wealthy retired community.
mikewsu on June 03 at 11:33 a.m.
My mistake on the population figures, I remember seeing a statistic that included everything within 100 miles of Spokane coming in at just under 1mil.
“The new MSA is likely to be named “Spokane-Coeur d’Alene Metropolitan Area”. It is expected that by that time, the area will have upwards of 650,000, and this change will occur no later than 2013.”
Looks like 650k+ is the most accurate figure.
Either way, Spokane has a diverse population, as most cities do. Following your given example: I’ve lived in Spokane most of my life and never visit any of those discount stores you mentioned. (Additionally they do have a Wal-Mart and K-Mart in SLO too, along with Winco’s rival Food 4 Less)
SLO:
The median income for a household in the city is $31,926, and the median income for a family is $56,319
Spokane:
The median income for a household in the county was $37,308, and the median income for a family was $46,463.
Not a huge difference in median incomes. I also don’t think you can speculate on parents giving their children money for the Apple store as a explanation. What about the wealthy families that send their kids to GU or Whitworth?
These demographics also don’t come into play as much when you have grown to be the #1 mobile device maker in the world and the leading technology company in the world, by market capitalization.
gp1012 on September 03 at 2:16 a.m.
I am glad Spokane is finally getting an apple store, I just moved here from Los Angeles where they have them everywhere. I think it will do great here, after all spokane is a city with many college students and colleges. I have a mac myself and prefer it over pc any day. I was also born and raised in San Luis Obispo CA. if it can make it in that town it will make it here easy. There is only one university in the area and one community college, not exactly competition to here. An Apple store in spokane will thrive, i’m sure