Reports indicate that the city of Stuttgart has rejected Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) overtures to open a retail store at a former World War II bunker. Apple reportedly offered a significant amount but city officials turned down the offer. This means that Stuttgart will remain without an Apple retail store as the nearest one is twelve miles away in Sindelfingen.
It is believed that the reason for the rejection was because allowing it would have invited claims of favoritism and corporate hegemony as City Hall would have been stationed directly opposite an edifice emblazoned with an Apple logo.
Apple’s artsy retail stores
In other cities, Apple has previously been allowed to build retail stores at locations and places of historic interest. This includes at the Grand Central Station, the U.S. Mortgage and Trust Building, and the Beaux-Arts Post Office in New York. The consumer electronics giant has also refurbished and repurposed iconic structures such as the Hotel Paris building in Madrid, Spain and the Apple Store Opera building in Paris, France.
The World War II bunker had previously served as a hotel between 1945 and 1985. Instead of windows, the hotel had ventilation shafts. The hotel rooms are still in existence to this date but they are in a dilapidated state.
Architectural competition
In a bid to transform the wartime bunker into a public exhibit, an architectural competition was unveiled in 1995. Neugebauer + Roesch Architect had the winning design which sought to build a glass prism measuring 31 meters long and 14 meters high as the entrance pavilion to stores that would be located underground. The project, however, never came to be as interest from the city administration waned after that.
Neugebauer + Roesch Architect’s winning design, if it had come to fruition, would have been in line with other underground stores that Apple has in other locations. This includes the Apple’s New York store on 5th Avenue.
Apple edged up by less than a percentage point during Wednesday’s trading session to close the day at$117.06.
