Brooklyn certainly isn’t the Apple of Steve Jobs’ eye, and his latest snub has the borough’s biggest booster seeing red.
“I seriously just don’t get it,” Borough President Marty Markowitz said today, after officials announced that an upscale restaurant would anchor new retail coming to the Municipal Building in Downtown Brooklyn — instead of the Apple store he had been seeking.
He said the computer giant and its CEO “won’t reach the big-time until Apple finally opens a store” in Brooklyn.
Before selecting developer Al Laboz, who also heads the nearby Fulton Mall’s Business Improvement District, city officials tried lobbying Apple to take the prime space, but failed.
Markowitz even purchased an iPad last year and produced a comical video calling on Jobs to bring Apple to Brooklyn. He said Jobs never responded to the video or an email.
The Beep said “almost every big-time” Brooklyn developer building new retail space has reached out to Apple – only to be shunned.
Others interested included developers for the Atlantic Yards in Prospect Heights, a few sites in Williamsburg and a city-owned office tower at 345 Adams St. Downtown, sources said.
Apple has four stores in Manhattan, one on Staten Island, and three in Long Island.
Markowitz has been calling on Apple to open its first Brooklyn store for five years.
An Apple spokeswoman confirmed the company has no current plans to open a Brooklyn store.
Mayor Bloomberg also expressed surprise over why Apple hasn’t opened a Brooklyn store, telling a reporter to pull Jobs’ financial records and “call the phone number” listed on it if they really want to know why.