Despite the postponement due to the impact of the epidemic, the main renovation of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, USA, was restarted a few months ago. Major luxury brands have invested heavily in buying stores on the avenue, including French luxury brands Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
Rodeo Avenue is the most expensive high street in the world, with shops renting an average of $40,000 to $80,000 a month and is difficult to rent.
Aria Baracci, founder of wedding clothing brand Baracci, said: "The monthly rent of stores is rising, approaching $70,000, and the new strategy is to buy stores. Baracci's store is located on Wilshire Avenue in Los Angeles, where singer Beyoncé has bought the brand's wedding dress.
Jaeger-LeCoultre, a luxury watch brand owned by Swiss luxury giant Richemont, opened its new store at 430 North Rodeo Avenue just a few weeks ago. Inspired by the brand's Reverso Flip Watch, the façade is art deco, while the interior is all made of organic materials and natural colours, reminiscent of the tranquility and beauty of vallée de Joux, Switzerland, where the brand was founded.
Above: Jaeger-LeCoultre's store on Rodeo Avenue
Dutch luxury jewelry brand Cartier, also part of Richemont, has temporarily relocated its main store at 370 North Rodeo Avenue to its former Store at 411 North Rodeo Avenue for The American fashion brand Guess, while Guess has now moved to 320 not far away.
French luxury brand Chanel's store project at the intersection of Brighton Way has been slow, but it is largely certain that it will open by the end of this year. Chanel bought two three-story buildings on Avenue for $152 million in 2015, equivalent to $13,217 per square foot, a record for a California retail store, and cemented Rodeo Avenue's position as one of the world's most exclusive shopping spots.
Chanel demolished the two buildings and rebuilt them into a single-family three-story building, including a penthouse for private launches, private and media conferences, and also as an office for the brand's digital business. The rebuilt store will be one of the brand's largest stores in the world.
Chanel's new stores in the U.S. have multiplied in recent months. Following the opening of new stores in Miami last December, Chanel's new stores in Las Vegas and Aspen also opened in April.
LVMH Group (LVMH) continues to strengthen its construction of Rodeo Avenue. The main store of the group's flagship brand, Louis Vuitton, is located at 295 North Rodeo Avenue, and a new two-storey store is about to be completed and opened on July 14.
Planning for Louis Vuitton's temporary store, which began last year, is located at the intersection of Rodeo Avenue and South Santa Monica Boulevard, formerly the store of the American menswear brand Brooks Brother. The makeshift store was fueled by Louis Vuitton's creative director of menswear Virgil Abloh's ingenious "Zoom with Friends" (communicating with friends via video conferencing software Zoom).
Above: LV's main store on Rodeo Avenue
A new store project for another French luxury brand, Dior, another French luxury brand owned by the LVMH Group, is also underway. LVMH recently acquired two adjacent stores of the Dior menswear boutique at 319 North Rodeo Avenue and merged them into a three-storey building with a restaurant with terraces, a car park and several terraces.
Not far from the LV new store is the Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel, which LVMH acquired from the Harkham family for $200 million in December 2021, for up to $2.3 million per hotel room, one of the highest ever hotel transaction unit prices in California. (For details, see the historical report of "Magnificent Chronicles":)
LvMH will also open the new Cheval Blanc hotel here, with 115 rooms, several shops, a private club, a spa and several gourmet restaurants. The hotel was designed by renowned architect Peter Marino and plans to build several floors on top of the original. Peter Marino has long designed store buildings for the LVMH Group, in particular the group's Louis Vuitton, Dior and Fendi.
A few hundred meters away, AMAN Hotel Group, a rival of Hacienda Hacienda Hotel, will also land in Los Angeles for the first time in 2026. The Aman Beverly Hills project will contain a 44-room hotel with a range of exclusive residences and a private club. The site was originally located on the parking lot of the estate of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, and construction has not yet begun.