With the Borders bookstore set to close at the corner of Harlem and Lake, Oak Park officials are clamoring for Apple to set up shop there. And lo and behold, Apple is moving to take over one of the book chain’s old spots, though nowhere near here.
According to the real estate website Curbed.com, Apple is maneuvering to take over the space of a now-defunct three-story Borders in Santa Monica, Calif. It’s no adaptive reuse of the space — which Oak Park would surely prefer in the case of the historic Marshall Field building — as Apple plans to tear down the old bookstore. They would then replace it with an 8,084-square-foot building, complete with a glass roof and façade.
Apple hasn’t confirmed that it will, in fact, occupy the proposed space, though Santa Monica bloggers are pointing out that the renderings look uncannily like an Apple Store.
In a related item, a developer is working to split the two-story, 20,500-square-foot Borders space in Highland Park into four distinct units, occupied by separate retailers, according to Chicago Architect magazine.