By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 10:30 AM EST

The long-awaited deal for Apple’s sprawling subterranean store in the GM building was recently finalized—but only after landlord Harry Macklowe promised Steve Jobs he could take his big $9 million glass cube with him at the end of the lease, reports New York Magazine.

According to the report, Jobs personally designed the 32-foot-by-32-foot hollow glass structure that will mark the store’s entrance on the Fifth Avenue plaza. Over the past month, workers could be seen assembling the massive gemstone-esque structure, one narrow glass pane at a time.

“Steve Jobs felt that he created the cube so he owned it,” said Apple broker Robert Futterman, noting that Macklowe wanted it to stay put. “At the eleventh hour, that was the biggest issue.”

The report says that Macklowe aggressively wooed Jobs, flying out to California twice and offering the 24,000-square-foot retail space at well below market rent of $1,000 per square foot.

"At the end of the twenty-year lease, Jobs must replace the cube with a comparable structure before hauling it off."

The GM Building flagship Apple store is now slated to open next spring.