Brooklyn pols pitch Municipal Building for new Apple store

Municipal Building

Brooklyn’s Municipal Building, the city-owned property at 210 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights, across from Borough Hall, could be the site of a new Apple store if local officials get their way. The borough — and especially its president, Marty Markowitz — has been trying to lure the technology retailer, which currently has four stores in Manhattan and one on Staten Island, for months. Now, new renderings obtained by the Daily News show how Apple might look on the first two floors of the Municipal Building. A study commissioned by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership recently found that the first two floors and the basement of the property, which also houses the borough’s Buildings, Probation, Finance and Environmental Protection departments, could be worth $20 million in a sale for retail use. Apple has already reportedly checked out sites in Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg, but broker Robert Greenstone, of his eponymous brokerage company, said the retailer has yet to find a property that meets its needs. “It’s got the foot traffic. The building is iconic. The building’s gorgeous, and I think it would make for a beautiful location” for Apple, said Markowitz, who recently made a video of himself writing an e-mail to Apple CEO Steve Jobs on an iPad in an attempt to convince him to set up shop in Brooklyn. [NYDN]

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