06 News
By necessity, the travel + hospitality marketing team at Criterion Global are WTM-veterans
1 OCTOBER, 2016 | HOSPITALITY | 
276
In 2018, as many as 12,000 stores are expected to close in the United States, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm. Nine thousand storefronts shut down last year.
Yet despite this very real reckoning, countless retailers are not only surviving, but also thriving.
The secret to their adaptive success? Almost anything, it seems, that keeps shoppers on their toes is viable. That includes exclusive merchandise (will this location carry that handbag?), pop-up shops (will this store be here next week?) and experiences (can I eat or drink or post as well as shop?).
Innovations that offer intrigue, if not necessarily inspiration, seem to be winning.
The project — which reopened in 2016 — is now one of four properties in WS Development’s Up Markets division that focuses on premier retail opportunities. It features 50 boutiques, including new Hermès and Saint Laurent outposts.
Despite her company’s sizable Palm Beach investment, she says she is aware of the crucial retail challenge ahead of her: getting people offline and into her Plaza’s boutiques.
Indeed, it would appear that the “hangout” is now as important as what is hanging on the racks.
Prabal Gurung, a Nepalese-American fashion designer, a favorite of celebrities like Priyanka Chopra and Kerry Washington, would agree. As he prepares for his label’s 10th anniversary next year, Mr. Gurung has decided that this is the year to debut his first stand-alone store.
He said his just-opened boutique on Bleecker Street in Manhattan’s West Village is “not the typical retail space where you just sell clothes.” Rather, the store is focused primarily on telling (and experiencing) stories — of the designer’s American dream come true, or the story behind the craftsmanship of handmade merchandise. Mr. Gurung intends to host a rotation of live events.
“We are opening our doors to the next generation to come in and experience that luxury doesn’t have to be cold and distant,” he said.
At the same time, Mr. Gurung has been chosen to be the creative director of “Love, Bleecker,” a joint project from Skylight, a fashion event venue development firm, and Brookfield Properties to reimagine beloved but bruised Bleecker Street, a totem of the past decade’s retail boom and bust.
276
In 2018, as many as 12,000 stores are expected to close in the United States, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate firm. Nine thousand storefronts shut down last year.
Yet despite this very real reckoning, countless retailers are not only surviving, but also thriving.
The secret to their adaptive success? Almost anything, it seems, that keeps shoppers on their toes is viable. That includes exclusive merchandise (will this location carry that handbag?), pop-up shops (will this store be here next week?) and experiences (can I eat or drink or post as well as shop?).
Innovations that offer intrigue, if not necessarily inspiration, seem to be winning.
“We are opening our doors to the next generation to come in and experience that luxury doesn’t have to be cold and distant.”
Samantha David, chief operating officer of WS Development, one of the largest retail development firms in the country, has spent the last two years directing the Lazarus-esque revitalization of Palm Beach’s Royal Poinciana Plaza. The area was once a destination as prestigious as Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue, but it had lost much of its retail glory by the 1990s.
The project — which reopened in 2016 — is now one of four properties in WS Development’s Up Markets division that focuses on premier retail opportunities. It features 50 boutiques, including new Hermès and Saint Laurent outposts.
Despite her company’s sizable Palm Beach investment, she says she is aware of the crucial retail challenge ahead of her: getting people offline and into her Plaza’s boutiques.
Indeed, it would appear that the “hangout” is now as important as what is hanging on the racks.
Prabal Gurung, a Nepalese-American fashion designer, a favorite of celebrities like Priyanka Chopra and Kerry Washington, would agree. As he prepares for his label’s 10th anniversary next year, Mr. Gurung has decided that this is the year to debut his first stand-alone store.
He said his just-opened boutique on Bleecker Street in Manhattan’s West Village is “not the typical retail space where you just sell clothes.” Rather, the store is focused primarily on telling (and experiencing) stories — of the designer’s American dream come true, or the story behind the craftsmanship of handmade merchandise. Mr. Gurung intends to host a rotation of live events.
“We are opening our doors to the next generation to come in and experience that luxury doesn’t have to be cold and distant,” he said.
At the same time, Mr. Gurung has been chosen to be the creative director of “Love, Bleecker,” a joint project from Skylight, a fashion event venue development firm, and Brookfield Properties to reimagine beloved but bruised Bleecker Street, a totem of the past decade’s retail boom and bust.
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