Apple Downtown Nashville opened today; here’s a look

Apple opened its downtown retail store in Nashville, TN, today. It’s the company’s fifth store in the Volunteer State, and I dropped by for a look.

The store is located at 500 Boadway in the heart of downtown Music City and is directly across from Bridgestone Arena where the Nashville Predators (our hockey team) plays. Also near-by are the famous Ryman Auditorium, and the Honky-Tonks of Lower Broadway, Nashville’s entertainment district.

 The area is packed most times of the year when the weather’s nice (as it was today), so Apple should get lots of out-of-towner visitors, as well as local residents.

Apple Downtown Nashville is very spacious with an exterior that’s mostly a 30-foot window impressively made of one pane of glass. It’s also four inches thick to offer protection from the city’s manic weather, which can be driving thunderstorms, tornadoes, blistering heat, and (occasionally) snow. It boasts a limestone, granite, stainless steel, and wood veneer elements. Australia-based Woods Bagot is the architect. 

I’m not sure exactly how much square footage the store is. However, it anchored the Fifth + Broadway development that spans span 6.2 acres and replaces the demolished Nashville Convention Center building. It will offer 200,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space, 385,000 square feet of Class A office space (at 501 Commerce), a 34-story apartment tower with approximately 380 residential units, and more than 2,000 parking spaces.

Downtown Nashville is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It’s Apple’s third retail location in Middle Tennessee. It has storefronts at the Green Hills Mall and CoolSprings Galleria. What’s more, the company’s music streaming service, Apple Music, announced in 2018 that it would rent 30,000 square feet of space in Wedgewood-Houston as a creative space for artists.