California Apparel News

In a quest to find more room for contemporary showrooms, the California Market Center is looking to break new ground to expand beyond its existing 130,000 square feet of contemporary space on the fifth floor.

For the 3 million-square-foot wholesale center, that means renovating its fourth and fifth floors to make Area 4, a new 42,000-square-foot space for young designer and up-and-coming resources.

The space is set to open for the Los Angeles Fashion Market in March 2008 and will feature a dedicated VIP elevator and a concierge service for buyers.

“It’s similar to a high-end hotel,” said Karli Heineman, CMC public-relations manager.

“They’ll be able to make reservations at all the hot, trendy restaurants. If they need a taxi or recommendations for where to go retail shopping, the concierge will provide them with that.”

Designed by Eva Sobesky of EIS Studio, Area 4 will feature a loft-like interior. Sobesky is a Southern California Institute of Architecture graduate who spent 12 years at Frank Gehry & Associates before opening her own design firm in 2002.

A staircase will connect the contemporary resources on the B-wing of the fifth floor to the resources in Area 4. Once there, retailers and visitors will find wide hallways, walnut accents, glass-fronted showrooms and a Zen lounge area with sweeping views of downtown Los Angeles.

VIP retailers will be able to take a dedicated elevator, which will run from the B elevator bank in the lobby directly to Area 4. “Tenants in Area 4 will give us a list of VIP retailers, and they will be mailed express registration,” said Heineman.

Showroom spaces will run from 1,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet, although larger showrooms can be created by combining spaces. Area 4 will be separate from the other showrooms on the fourth floor, which include men’s suits, outerwear and streetwear. Area 4 tenants will have access to the B-wing freight elevators. Leasing will begin in early September.

“The fifth floor is at capacity, and we wanted to create a new area that had a different feeling and bring in cutting-edge resources,” said Heineman. “This will also complement our fifth-floor fashion showrooms. With all these different aspects of the building, we’re trying to build more momentum with contemporary.”

Area 4’s tenants will include young, emerging designers and edgy contemporary lines, said Heineman. The floor’s tenant mix will be juried by a merchandising team. Although all the floors in the building are juried, the CMC created a new committee for this project “to keep the integrity of the area,” said CMC Director of Leasing Sue Bhanubandh.

“The demand for contemporary-showroom space in our building has been overwhelming over the past few years,” said Bhanubandh. “We have an extensive waiting list for showroom space and as a result, there was a need to create a new venue within the building to cater to the growing contemporary category.”

Ongoing efforts

Area 4 is the largest renovation effort for the building since it opened up the second wing of the 13th-floor Penthouse Pavilion in 2005, after the building was purchased by Jamison Properties.

Since that time, the building renovated its sixth floor, which houses childrenswear resources. The floor has been at capacity since last year, due to the growing popularity of contemporary kids labels, including C&C California, J & Co., Joe’s Jeans, Monarchy, Trunk Ltd. and Ella Moss.

And there may be more childrenswear on the way. “We’re looking to expand our kids’ contemporary floor,” confirmed Heineman.

Other floors that got a makeover include the B wing of the second floor, the A wing of the third floor and the A wing of the seventh floor.

The CMC is also continuing to upgrade the common areas of the building.

The building will also expand its fashion-show offerings during Los Angeles Fashion Market in October, reprising a program launched last March. The CMC previously produced its own trend runway shows during market weeks but stopped the practice shortly before the building was sold to Jamison. Last season, the CMC made venue space available for fashion shows and Los Angeles–based buying office Directives West, and Los Angeles–based labels Yana K. and Carilyn Vaile hosted shows in a tented space in the lobby patio.

At the time, CMC executives said they planned to grow the show-venue concept, noting several potential areas in the building where shows could be held, including the lower-level Exhibition Hall and part of the 13th-floor Penthouse Pavilion.

For October market, there are already six shows confirmed and several more pending, said Heineman. Directives West will host two shows, and Yana K. and Carilyn Vaile will return. New to the lineup are Los Angeles designer Bianca Nero and Plastic Island, the contemporary label out of Seoul, Korea, whose U.S. headquarters are in the CMC.