Apple location: Eastwood Towne Center

Thursday, Feb. 20 — Apple, Inc. has applied to Lansing Township to open a location for The Apple Store in Eastwood Towne Center.

The California-based company filed paperwork with the township on Jan. 3, documents show. The 6,000-square-foot store would be located at 3025 Preyde Blvd., between Victoria’s Secret and Bath and Body Works at the outdoor mall.

Media reports till now have not said where the store might be located, but MLive.com pointed to a website that tracks Apple retail-related news speculating it would be in Eastwood.

Matt Brinkley, a senior planner with the township, said the contractor is "free to start work in accordance with the permit."

David Smith opened Capital Macintosh in Lansing’s East Side neighborhood in 2006. Capitol Macintosh, 1915 E. Michigan Ave., is an Apple-centric store that focuses mostly on in-store and on-site Macintosh repairs, but does some light retail sales as well.

“I have mixed emotions (about the Apple Store) because I’m not sure what the impact will be (for us),” Smith said. “But overall I’m excited.”

Smith said Apple Stores tend to focus on iPhone sales, while Capitol Macintosh deals with the company’s desktop computers. He said one service Apple Stores offer that he doesn’t is provide free diagnostics.

“We can’t do that,” Smith said. “But there are independent (Apple repair stores) in cities that have Apple Stores, and they do fine. I hope that they’d recommend us to their customers. This is probably good for us.”

Smith recently remodeled his 600-square-foot store and plans to have a grand reopening party sometime this spring.