Derelicte Showroom to Anchor CMC's Area 4
The California Market Center’s Area 4 wing of chic, contemporary fashion showrooms will debut in September, but on March 2 the CMC announced Derelicte Inc., a leading menswear showroom, will be one of the first tenants to anchor the new wing, which CMC management hopes will help reinvent the building. It will move to temporary quarters at the CMC on March 15.
Derelicte owner Jason Bates said the move was inspired by CMC amenities such as 24-hour access to the building. He also said the CMC gave him a better rate than the Cooper Design Space, where Derelicte has been a tenant since 2003. He did not divulge the terms of his new lease.
Bates also is the show director and chief executive of the Class Trade Show, a biannual trade event that takes place in Santa Monica, Calif. (See related story here.) He also licenses a Class trade event at the Action Sports Retailer show in San Diego.
Bates’ prominence as chief of Class was one reason why CMC sought Derelicte as a tenant, said Michal Goldvaser, the CMC leasing representative who brokered the deal. The recent Feb. 27–28 run of Class drew buyers from prominent stores including American Rag, Fred Segal and LASC. Vendors renting booths at the show included premium-denim brand J Brand and contemporary brands Robert Graham and Original Penguin.
Derelicte and Area 4 will change the image of the CMC, Goldvaser said. “It will bring a much more chic, fashion-forward audience around to the building,” she said.
Area 4 will be a 26-showroom section located in the 4B wing of the CMC. Half of the wing will be devoted to better men’s contemporary showrooms. The other half will be devoted to better women’s contemporary showrooms. Los Angeles–based label Voom will be one of the anchors for the women’s section. The architectural centerpiece of the wing will be an atrium portico. The look of this new section will be designed by EIS Studio, which is based in Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood.
Mona Sangkala, the Cooper Design Space’s director of leasing, wished Derelicte well in their new space. “We want all of our neighbors to be successful. The more important the Intersection is to domestic and international buyers, the more reason we give them to come over to the Intersection,” she said. (The Intersection is the name given to block of showroom buildings at Ninth and Los Angeles streets in downtown Los Angeles.)
New showrooms moving into the Cooper for the upcoming Los Angeles Fashion Market, running March 19–23, will be women’s contemporary showroom Room and New York–based menswear showroom The Foundation.—Andrew Asch
