Brief: Apple Hopes Boston Won't Ban Its Store

After plans for an Apple retail store ran into Boston's tough architectural permitting process, a team from Apple was scheduled to submit new plans Wednesday with hopes of building a large Boston area flagship store at a major city crossroads.

Planned for a site across from the city's Prudential Center, the store, as conceived, will be a magnet to attract the region's huge student population. Earlier plans for a striking glass faade store were criticized by Boston's Back Bay Architectural Commission.

While the Prudential Center has a modern design, the proposed Apple store site is located in an area replete with older brownstones.

Apple currently operates a network of small stores in suburban Boston communities. The company's retail store unit recorded sales of more than $1 billion in its latest reported quarter.

The company opened its first two stores five years ago. Since then the stores have been a retailing success story, topped of by the opening in May of its Manhattan store.