Lady LUX

Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga are each setting up shop in SoHo. The three labels have inked leases to open stores in the famed district: McCartney intends to launch a 2,700-square-foot space at 112 Greene St., Balenciaga will unveil a 4,769-square-foot store at 148 Mercer St., and YSL plans to open a location across the street at 149 Mercer St. in a 2,500-square-foot space, reported WWD.

Mercer Street is already hopping with luxury brands. During the last three years, the street has attracted the likes of Vera Wang, Marni, Costume National and Prada. But, according to one expert, the addition of these three labels brings something distinct.

“YSL and Balenciaga take things to a totally different level,” an anonymous retail real estate expert said to WWD. “Between Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney and YSL, luxury brands are creating clusters off the most heavily trafficked stretches of SoHo.”

Stella McCartney currently caters to its New York consumers in the Meatpacking District with a store on 14th Street that opened in 2002, a few years after the area’s first retailer, Jeffery New York, launched a shop in 1999. Rumors are that McCartney’s lease expires soon, and the new tenant likely will pay the market rate of $300 to $400 a square foot, a sharp hike from the rent McCartney paid, at $50 to $100 a square foot.

Sources say that McCartney’s new rent on Greene Street will be $600,000 per year, calculated on a 10-year agreement. The new store will sell everything from ready-to-wear to lingerie, shoes, handbags, accessories, jewelry and kids.

“We just want a different space,” an anonymous employee at the Stella McCartney store disclosed.

Likewise, Balenciaga’s lease on its 542 W. 22nd St. location is about to expire, and the company has decided to shell out cash for more lavish accommodations at Mercer Street. The new store will feature soaring ceilings and cost the company $1 million a year in rent.

For YSL, SoHo is familiar stomping grounds. In 1999, the brand opened a pop-up shop on Great Jones Street to carry its unisex collection, created by Stefano Pilati.

“SoHo has about 10 times the storefronts and retail square footage of the Meatpacking District,” Jared Epstein, vice president of Aurora Capital Associates, which owns property in the Meatpacking District, said. “The supply of quality vacancies at reasonable rents in SoHo far exceeds that of the Meatpacking District. We’ll see how that plays out as more Meatpacking space comes online and SoHo space is snatched up. SoHo has more foot traffic, but the Meatpacking customer spends significantly more per transaction.”

Sept. 11 has influenced many brands’ decisions to settle in SoHo. Before the terrorist attack, SoHo was home to Chanel, Moncler and Prada stores. Cartier, YSL, H.Stern and Ermenegildo Zegna all had plans to open shops in the SoHo neighborhood, but they either never moved or quickly closed their doors after Sept. 11. Ten years later, YSL, along with others, hopes to open new doors in the Manhattan district.

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