Zara's Financial District Store Looks So Close to Opening

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Financial District workers and locals have been somewhat spoiled over the past year, with tons of new fancy fitness studios, cool-girl boutiques, and not one, but three shopping complexes. But through all the retail changes, it's been missing one major thing: a Zara. When the brand announced it'd be taking over 222 Broadway nearly two years ago, the expected opening date was "either late 2014 or early 2015." And one year after the projected date, it appears the store is finally ready to go.

A Racked tipster sent us the following image, adding that the huge wooden fence surrounding the store had recently been taken down, and that it appeared to be "definitely on time for opening before the usual Thanksgiving deadline." Translation: Prepare your Black Friday attack plan now.

For those familiar with the original rendering, you'll notice it looks strikingly different than what we were expecting. (For those unfamiliar, here's what it was supposed to look like, via the Post:)

A Tribeca Citizen tipster also managed to grab a photo of the interior, which you can see includes two escalators in the front of the store behind the revolving doors:

As for that other highly anticipated Zara store, located in the former Old Navy space in Soho, all we know is that the massive signage continues to tease passersby. The store, which broke the neighborhood's retail record with its $20,000-per-square-foot price tag (yup, you read that number correctly), will open "soon," according to the sign, which as any New Yorker knows, means virtually nothing.