Retailer Survives quot;The Waitquot;
Do all good things come to those who wait? Los Angeles retailer Johnny Alper will soon find out.
Last year, the management of the Beverly Center requested that Alper and business partner Gila Leibovitch move their fashion boutique, Premier Men, out of a 1,800-square-foot space on the seventh floor of the exclusive Los Angeles mall, which is owned by real estate investment trust Taubman Centers.
Premier Men was a Beverly Center tenant for two years, but the mall wanted the boutique’s space to serve as the new location for a Gucci store. When the time came to close the doors on its Beverly Center location in January of this year, mall management said the absence would be temporary. Premier Men would be relocated to another favorable location at the Beverly Center.
Unfortunately, “temporary” meant six months. Alper estimated that his business lost $1 million from not having a space at the mall. The blow was cushioned by sales from the four other boutiques owned by Leibovitch and Alper: Blowout and Matrix, both located on Los Angeles’ Melrose Avenue, and The Vault and Melrose Place, based in Laguna Beach, Calif.
But on June 30, Premier Men held a party to celebrate the debut of its new space at the Beverly Center. While their old space was located close to Macy’s seventh-floor entrance, the new space is placed by the seventh floor’s centrally located express elevators.
Premier Men is located next to boutiques for Ben Sherman, A/X Armani and Diesel. Premier Men’s new space is larger, too, at 2,100 square feet. The added floor space means more real estate to sell woven shirts and jeans by labels such as English Laundry, 7 Diamonds and Antik Denim. Price points range from $39 to $69 for a T-shirt and from $150 to $569 for a jacket.
Alper said that he’s thrilled to be back, yet he conceded that space costs. The new store’s increased square footage requires that he and Leibovitch pay 10 percent more than their former Beverly Center rent.—Andrew Asch
