Pioneer Place Wants to Tear Down a Sky Bridge. Is It Putting Up an Apple Store?

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The owners of Pioneer Place Mall are asking the city's permission to demolish one of two sky bridges over downtown streets—one more step toward constructing a one-story glass building many have speculated will be an Apple Store.

A request submitted to the city last week shows the mall wants the sky bridge over Southwest Yamhill Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues torn down so it can put in a glass-enclosed street front retail space along the eastbound MAX line, where Saks Fifth Avenue stood until 2010.

In May, Pioneer Place owners General Growth Properties submitted plans for a one-story, 26,297 square-foot space with a clear glass facade on three sides, facing north onto Yamhill. The plans indicate a single retail tenant, with a stone plaza along the MAX line.

City planning officials say they don't know what tenant Pioneer Place has in mind, and representatives for the mall haven't yet returned WW's calls.

But The Oregonian suggested back in February that Apple might be looking to move up from its store in Pioneer Place's basement level. Initial plans were submitted to the city by Apple's preferred architect, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and at least one blog that follows Apple's retail spaces raved that the store would be Apple's widest in the world.

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