Apple has begun a super-secret quest for a store in historic Grand Central Terminal, potentially creating a hive of buzzing techies in the glamorous Beaux Arts landmark. 
 
 Reliable sources tell The Observer that the maker of ubiquitous iGadgets–from computers to cell phones–hopes to open a store in the transportation and retail hub, though it has yet to begin the long approval process necessary for opening in a city landmark. 
 
 Apple wields a famously iron fist over all its major announcements and has been rumored to back out of deals if anyone speaks to the press. To wit, when contacted by The Observer, most of the parties potentially involved wouldn’t even blink twice for yes, although they tellingly would not deny it either. 
 
 Friendly receptionists became suddenly cagey when we dropped the A-bomb. “We’re not authorized to speak about that,” said the woman who answered the phone for Grand Central‘s leasing agent, Williams Jackson Ewing. Likewise, a lovely Southerner at Dallas-based Open Realty, which represents Apple, sighed almost imperceptibly and noted that Apple’s broker, Jonathan A. Siegel, is away on business. 
 
 For its part, MTA Real Estate/ Retail+Leasing division, which will have the final word on any new store, offered this careful response: “We select tenants through a public process that features a formal request for proposals,” said Aaron Donovan, a spokesman for the MTA. “We don’t comment on prospective tenants outside of the process. Robert K. Futterman, which handled Apple’s first three New York spaces, declined to comment. 
 
 Apple, unsurprisingly, said the company hadn’t made an announcement about a new store. 
 
 The riddle remains: Where can you put a phalanx of high-tech gadgets and hundreds of techies and tourists alike in historic Grand Central? Banana Republic and Kenneth Cole, which have stores fronting 42nd Street, have leases expiring, according to one broker, but the store is not expected to take those spaces. Instead, it sounds like the company plans to put its high-tech shrine right in the terminal. 
 
 Apple is most famous for its glass cube on Fifth Avenue (the fifth most-photographed site in New York City) and a similar store on the Upper West Side. But the company also has a track record of historically sensitive design: namely, its first New York store, inside a Soho post office, its warehouse store in the Meatpacking District, and one in historic Georgetown, in Washington, D.C. Neither the Landmarks Preservation Commission nor the architect of its previous stores, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, have been contacted by Apple. 
 
 SLIDESHOW: Apple’s Last Stop? Grand Central 
 
 lkusisto@observer.com 
 
 Follow Laura Kusisto via RSS. ||||| Apple will be building a massive store in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, we have independently confirmed. 
 
 The store will open in the fall, likely early September — and it will be Apple’s largest retail space in the world. 
 
 The store already has a name: Apple Store, Grand Central, according to a source close the company. The source said Apple will be making an internal announcement within the next month or so. 
 
 “The company will certainly pull out all the stops on this one,” said the source, who asked not to be named. 
 
 This year is the 10th anniversary of Apple retail, and Apple wants to make a big splash, our source said. Apple’s retail operation has been a spectacular success, helping fuel the company’s explosive growth and creating shops that make twice as much money as Tiffany & Co. 
 
 
 
 Reports that Apple was looking at the New York landmark first appeared last week in The New York Observer and IFOAppleStore.com. Both publications said Apple was “evaluating” Grand Central but hadn’t started the long and complex approval process, which is overseen by New York’s bureaucratic MTA. 
 
 The Apple Store, Grand Central, will be the largest in the world. It will be bigger than the Apple Store in Covent Garden, London, currently Apple’s largest retail location. The Covent Garden store is about 40,000 square feet over four stories, but only 16,372 square feet is public, according to IFOAppleStore. 
 
 It’s unclear where Apple will find more than 16,000 square feet inside Grand Central. 
 
 The terminal is home to more than 100 retail locations, spread across three levels and 130,000 square feet. Most average between 1,000 and 6,000 square feet. One of the largest stores is Rite Aid at 10,000 square feet, followed by Kenneth Cole, which has about 8,500 square feet next to the iconic Vanderbilt Hall. Here’s the leasing plan (pdf). 
 
 The Observer said Apple isn’t expected to take one of the traditional retail spaces, but will locate right in the terminal. 
 
 Our source suggested that Apple may be taking walls down — but didn’t elaborate. 
 
 The terminal sees more than 700,000 visitors a day, most heading for trains or subway. But about 250,000 come to look at Vanderbilt Hall or eat at the 35 restaurants, including the historic Oyster Bar on the lower level. 
 
 Apple already operates four super-popular stores in Manhattan. The largest is the spectacular glass-fronted store on the Upper West Side. The busiest is the famous glass cube on Fifth Avenue. The Fifth Ave. store is only a mile away from Grand Central. In fact, the mad crowds at Fifth Ave. is the reason Apple wants another store so close, to take the pressure off, according IFOAppleStore. ||||| Big Apple, indeed. 
 
 Not content to have the highest-grossing store on the world’s most expensive street, Apple is set to open a gargantuan retail outlet inside Grand Central Terminal, the massive train station in the heart of Manhattan, according to a new report. 
 
 Rumors of the deal have been circulating for a few days, but Apple sleuth Leander Kahney says he’s confirmed that Apple will be opening the store sometime in the fall, most likely in early September. 
 
 If true, I think it’s fair to say that this deal would represent a vote of confidence in New York City’s economic recovery. 
 
 It would also reflect a change in the nature of Grand Central, a beloved, 140-year-old landmark on 42nd Street, turning it from essentially a transit point — albeit a gorgeous one — with scattered retail, into a full-fledged shopping destination. 
 
 The move would help alleviate the immense traffic at Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue. For years now, it’s been increasingly difficult to do business there in a timely way, except for late at night. On weekends and over holidays, the store is virtually impassible, clogged by throngs of tourists from around the globe. 
 
 Kahney says the outlet will become the largest Apple retail location in the world and be called Apple Store, Grand Central. At present, the largest Apple store is the Covent Garden location in London, which measures in at 16,732 square feet of publicly accessible space. 
 
 Last time I checked, there wasn’t a 16,000 square-foot chunk of unoccupied retail space inside Grand Central, through which 700,000 people — mostly commuters — travel each weekday. 
 
 However, and this is pure speculation, one possible candidate could be the retail spaces surrounding and below Vanderbilt Hall, the huge room on the 42nd Street side that used to be the station’s waiting area. It’s currently used for seasonal events, art shows, etc. (Wall Street bank Bear Stearns once set up a squash court there). 
 
 Here’s the leasing plan [.pdf] via Kahney. 
 
 Reached for comment, an Apple spokesperson told Wired.com: “We have not made any announcements about a store at that location. Anything else is rumor and speculation.” 
 
 Follow us for disruptive tech news: Sam Gustin and Epicenter on Twitter. 
 
 See Also:
– Bust out the Big Apple jokes: Steve Jobs and company will open their largest store yet in the fall—inside Grand Central Terminal in New York City, reports Cult of Mac. The store will be called "Apple, Grand Central" and is expected to start doing business in September, insiders tell the website. Rumors of the plan surfaced earlier in the New York Observer. Wired loves the idea: "The move would help alleviate the immense traffic at Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue," writes Sam Gustin. "For years now, it’s been increasingly difficult to do business there in a timely way, except for late at night. On weekends and over holidays, the store is virtually impassible, clogged by throngs of tourists from around the globe."