Gucci Opening at The Grove Shopping Center
On a corner spot at The Grove, the Los Angeles shopping center that looks like Main Street USA merged with Via del Corso in Rome, a new Gucci store is under wraps.
There is no splashy “Coming Soon” sign, just a blue-and-white wrap with the word “Gucci” printed on each window panel.
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Coming to the former two-story J. Crew flagship, the store ups the luxury ante for the shopping destination developed by former L.A. mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, where a forest green electric trolley ferries shoppers from one end of the outdoor mall to the other.
“Gucci is slated to open at The Grove in the spring/summer of 2024,” confirmed Jackie Levy, chief financial and revenue officer for Caruso, the company that owns the mall.
Levy noted that The Grove pulls from 100 ZIP codes and “caters to a diverse and affluent community that has expressed a desire for additional luxury offerings to complement our lineup of flagship stores.”
Currently, The Grove is anchored by Nordstrom, with Banana Republic, Gap, Barnes & Noble, Coach, Michael Kors, Lululemon, Frame, Paige, Backcountry, Vince, Sephora, Apple and Nike among the other tenants.
The new Gucci location is taking over a 8,700-square-foot space near what was once a Barneys New York Co-Op. This will be the Italian luxury label’s 10th store in the greater L.A. area.
In April, Gucci opened its first ultra-luxe Salon concept with bespoke offerings on the prime corner of Melrose Place and Melrose Avenue in an ivy-covered building that for years was occupied by Marc Jacobs.
Gucci also recently opened an outpost at Caruso-owned shopping center The Americana at Brand in the L.A. suburb of Glendale, California. It joined new outposts of Saint Laurent and Golden Goose, with an expanded Tiffany & Co. coming soon.
At Palisades Village, a Caruso retail property in L.A.’s wealthy Pacific Palisades neighborhood, luxury has grown to 25 percent of the retail mix, with the recent addition of Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent.
Luxury shoppers continue to spend and haven’t been curtailed by high inflation rates or an expensive real estate market. The growth of stand-alone luxury stores is supplementing department stores and shopping-center anchors that have faced challenging times after the COVID-19 pandemic shut stores for months in 2020. Hermès just opened in a former Sears location at the Westfield Topanga in the San Fernando Valley outside of L.A.
Gucci’s new creative director Sabato De Sarno will debut his first collection at Milan Fashion Week. Also in September, Gucci’s longtime chief executive, Marco Bizzarri, who has led the company since 2015, will depart. His job will be filled by Jean-Francois Palus, currently group managing director at Kering.
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