I' ve had various dogs in apartments, and some do ok. None of those are retrievers, though, and that would appear to be what you are after. I think a retriever puppy is out of the question, and your best bet may be to purchase an older, trained retriever that is already calm in the house.

It will cost your more initially, but it should even out over the long run when you consider the 1-2 years of destructiveness you could expect from a puppy.