Australia’s first ever Apple Global Flagship Store will open at Federation Square (pictured) in Melbourne, delivering more public space, visitors and events to Victoria, and creating hundreds of local jobs. However, not everyone is happy about it.
According to Business Insider, some folks are questioning the decision to let the tech giant lease the public land for 20 years. One building Apple will demolish is home to the Koorie Heritage Trust and the Melbourne headquarters of SBS, although both will remain at alternate Federation Square locations.
“It’s Melbourne’s premier civic and cultural space in the city,” Melbourne Greens councillor Rohan Leppert told AAP. “The public has a right to have some input at the very least into what that space looks like and going into the future.”
The original architect behind Federation Square, Donald Bates, told Business Insider that Apple’s vision “respects and expands on the original vision for the space.”
