Edible Apple

It was about a year ago that Apple purchased land in Lincoln Park, a trendy area in downtown Chicago popular among young professionals. Since then, Apple has quietly gone about constructing a 15,000 square foot Apple Store to accompany its already popular storefront on Michigan Avenue.

It’s no secret that Apple takes aesthetics very seriously, and the location of its upcoming store reflects that. The upcoming store, located at the intersection of North Avenue and Halsted (for those familiar with Chicago), is right across the street from a Borders and a CB2 and is an area that generally attracts a more affluent demographic. Moreover, Apple went so far as to pour over $4 million into redeveloping a run down, but still functional, Red Line train station to ensure that the entire area surrounding Apple’s new store is up to snuff. And lest you think Apple did this free of charge, the city of Chicago is giving Apple naming rights for the renovated station. Some have jokingly suggested iStop, which is sort of like the Be Sharps from the Barbershop Quartet episode of The Simpsons – “We need a name that’s witty at first, but that seems less funny each time you hear it.”

In an event, with construction in full swing, a tipster sent TUAW a message saying that the store is set to open in either July or August of this year.

The store is working on hiring right now; while some of the management will be brought in from other stores in the area, we’re told that they plan to hire about 160 employees to start, including Geniuses, Specialists, and everything else.