Esprit Scouting Market as It Prepares Return to Retailing

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After shuttering all its U.S. stores in 2002, casual clothier Esprit is scouting space in Los Angeles as it prepares for a return to West Coast retailing.


Hong Kong’s Esprit Holdings Ltd. acquired Esprit’s U.S. rights and logo in 2002. Esprit de Corp., the San Francisco design business that was incorporated in the 1970s, reached its peak a decade later before fading. It went into receivership in 1996.


Its women’s wear has remained available in Macy’s department stores, but Esprit is now working with Madison Marquette Realty Services LP to locate space for its branded stores.


“We’re not going to open just one store in Los Angeles, we want to open five or 10 at one time,” said Jack Schwefel, executive vice president of Esprit

U.S. retail in New York.


The company re-entered the U.S. market in September with the opening of a flagship store in Manhattan and now has six stores in the New York metropolitan area. It expects to have at least 10 stores in the New York area by the June close of its fiscal year.


While it’s possible that Esprit stores will open here as early as the end of 2005, “we’re taking our time,” Schwefel said. “This company was born in California. When we re-enter this market, we want to make sure we do it in a way that is substantive, significant and makes sense.”


Esprit is seeking 4,500- to 6,000-square-foot locations in high traffic areas, he said. And despite the new ownership, Schwefel said the essence of the brand remains similar. “It’s a very youthful luxury product for everyone,” he said.


Though its U.S. retail operations have been gone for several years, Esprit generated more than $3 billion in worldwide sales for the fiscal year ended June 2004.


Still, said Richard Giss, partner in the Los Angeles office of Deloitte & Touche, getting back into the U.S. retail market may prove challenging.


“It’s always difficult to re-establish a brand,” said Giss. “In some respects, it’s a lot easier to start one if you happen to hit on a product that gets wide public acceptance because there are not preconceptions about what you’re offering.”



Le Colonial-ization

The long-running effort to lease the site of the former Le Colonial restaurant in West Hollywood has given way to a sale.


Leonard Horwin Trust has sold the 7,800-square-foot restaurant site and an adjacent 4,000-square-foot building to TDCD Ltd. for $6.2 million.


The Le Colonial building, at 8783 Beverly Blvd., was on the market for lease at $20,000 per month for nearly a year before TDCD offered to buy it, according to Darlene Heskamp, the broker with Beitler Commercial Realty Services representing the trust.


Le Colonial, a French-Vietnamese restaurant, closed in early 2001 and was followed by restaurateurs Michael Kang and Eric Nguyen’s Five Feet. That venture closed six months later.


TDCD has already leased the site to upscale men’s clothing retailer Lords. The clothier, which has a store on Melrose Avenue, will make use of the liquor license that came with the property for an on-site caf & #233;, Heskamp said. Neither Lords officials nor TDCD attorneys Shumaker Steckbauer Weinhart LLP returned calls.



Nederlander Sues


Ned Pan Inc., owner of the Pantages Theatre, has followed through with threats to sue Shangri-La Hollywood Inc.’s The Forbidden City restaurant and nightclub in Hollywood, as well as building owner Royal Elk Inc., over use of property Ned Pan claims it controls.


The complaint, filed on Oct. 22 in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges the defendants built structures enclosing seating, tables and beds, and placed stairs, a landing and a fence on Pantages’ easement. In addition, Forbidden City blocked access across the easement with dumpsters and furniture and placed an open fire pit and water fountain on the property, the suit claims.


Forbidden City obtained a permit from the city to build a 2,580-square-foot patio in the rear of its Vine Street building on July 23.


Calls to Forbidden City were not returned, but last month, co-owner Steve Edelson said Forbidden City did not build on Pantages’ easement and called the controversy a “non-issue.”

Staff reporter Rebecca Flass can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 230, or at

[email protected]

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