New Apple Stores coming to London’s Harrod’s, Italy’s Turin, Sweden’s Stockholm, US’s Portland and Houston

9to5 Staff | Mar 2 2012 - 7:13 am PT

Having successfully reset the center of Amsterdam with the beautiful Hirsch store—the company’s first in the Netherlands, while gearing to launch a landmark outlet in London’s world-famous Harrods department store by mid-March (quite possibly coinciding with iPad 3 availability), Apple is ready to open new retail outlets in the United States and overseas. Per the latest retail chatter, Apple now plans to build four new stores, including an outlet in Houston’s Highland Village Shopping center at Westheimer and Drexel, and a spectacular store at the old Saks space in downtown Portland, Ore.

A retail application from an unnamed company that Portland is reviewing describes a block-long glass storefront with a 10-foot deep plaza in front in Saks Fifth Avenue at the Pioneer Place shopping mall.

Likely replacing the existing Apple store building’s basement, OregonLive.com reports the development plan calls for a “single story building and outdoor plaza area… fully glazed with clear glass.” The report also mentioned “bead blasted, matte finish stainless steel panels,” another tell-tale sign of an Apple store.

A Google Maps view on the right, courtesy of ifoAppleStore, outlines the proposed area for the store in yellow. Plaza steps are planned and the entire store is slated at 165 feet wide with 22 glass panels. Downloadable PDFs offer a glimpse into the project description and drawings and the ground-floor plan. The design review of the proposed store is due March 15 at 1:30 p.m.

More information on other upcoming outlets, including Italy’s “most important store,” are after the break.

Black curtains hiding the glass front of Apple’s upcoming store in Houston’s Highland Village Shopping center at Westheimer and Drexel. Image credit: Chron.com

Another store is coming to the Highland Village Shopping center located at 4012 Westheimer Road and Drexel in Houston. It is scheduled to open March 16—possibly in time for iPad 3 launch. It is the city’s first store not located inside of a shopping mall. It will feature an all-glass roof and both front and rear entrances. According to the Chron.com blog:

Work has been proceeding at a furious pace at the site, which has been draped in black cloth for months. On Wednesday evening, workers swarmed over the building in the dark. Behind the store, crates stamped “Made In Italy” were open and contained floor tiles that were being installed. Scaffolding that had surrounded the building for months is gone, and the black cloth now covers what appears to be a glass back, front and curved roof. It looks like a smaller version of a store opened in New York City last year.

Swamplot has a couple of sneak-peek photos snapped through open doors that show the familiar, friendly interior typical for Apple stores.

Apple is also mulling a store in Sweden, possibly in Stockholm’s city center, according to this retail job listing on Apple’s website discovered by Allt om Mac. It is Apple’s first Scandinavian retail outlet and allegedly opens this September. Per a November 2011 report by Swedish newspaper Expressen, the store will occupy the space of the Audi’s old offices in Hamngatan, now occupied by a Japanese shoe store.

Italian website Macity.it pointed to another store allegedly coming to Via Roma, Turin in September of this year. Apple also operates an additional store in Turin at Le Gru, but this one is described as a flagship outlet akin to the company’s major stores in France and the United Kingdom. Billed as Italy’s “most important” and “prestigious” outlet, it will span 10763 square feet on two floors.

A currently unoccupied building at Via Roma, Turin, Italy where a new store is coming. Apple leased the space, and the previous owner Mondadori moved out. Image credit: MacStories

The proposed storefront’s site plan of the Pioneer Place shopping mall in Portland, Ore.