Another high-end retailer is moving into the Gold Coast shopping district.
French fashion house Celine, a LVMH-owned brand, is opening a boutique on Rush Street, near the Waldorf Astoria hotel, Crain’s reported. It’s leasing 4,900 square feet at 939 North Rush Street, joining luxury retailers like Brunello Cucinelli, Versace and Dior that have contributed to the neighborhood’s image as an “ultra-expensive” shopping destination.
The storefront is a new two-story building developed by JMB Realty. Brunello Cucinelli was previously located there before it moved next door in 2021. The new location will be the first Midwest store for Celine, which sells its products at the nearby Neiman Marcus store at 737 N. Michigan Avenue on the Magnificent Mile. Houston’s Silvestri Investments bought the four-story Neiman Marcus store in May for $94 million from UBS Realty.
The north end of the Mag Mile, just north of Neiman Marcus, has been especially distressed, with the owner of the Water Tower Place vertical mall set to hand the keys back to its lender. On the other end of the street, retail landlord Macerich sold its 50 percent stake in The Shops at North Bridge building for $21 million, a fraction of the $515 million that it and its partner, the Alaska Permanent Fund, paid in 2008.
When Disney announced it would close its store at the corner lot at 717 N. Michigan Avenue in August, it was a hit for the owners, real estate investment trust Acadia Realty, which paid $104 million for the property in 2017.
Acadia Realty is on the verge of feeling even more pain on the Magnificent Mile. Swedish retailer H&M is hunting for a smaller space to move into from its four-story, 60,000-square-foot store at 840 North Michigan Avenue, an Acadia-owned building that the tenant has occupied for almost two decades.
Read more
[CCB] — Victoria Pruitt