Apartment 3 Closes Downtown L.A. Shop
On Jan. 12, Kristin Knauff closed her downtown Los Angeles fashion boutique Apartment 3, after more than a year in Los Angeles’ still-emerging downtown area. On Feb. 12, she intends to reopen Apartment 3 in Los Feliz, a neighborhood she believes to enjoy higher pedestrian traffic.
Knauff’s story began near Hollywood. She ran an Apartment 3 fashion boutique near the corner of La Brea and Melrose avenues from 2004 to 2007. She moved downtown in December 2007 so she could provide a boutique for a growing but underserved demographic: downtown Los Angeles residents. Her store focused on designer and vintage fashions.
“We had a handful of really great [downtown] customers; for the most part, our business consisted of our regulars from West Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake and Echo Park,” she said.
Located at 4634 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz neighborhood, the new store will be near an American Apparel shop and fashion boutique Confederacy.
However, the potential for downtown’s boutique retail has not yet been realized, according to Ray Cho, the manager of boutique Kimski in the Little Tokyo section of downtown Los Angeles.
Cho forecast more new shoppers will travel to downtown to enjoy nightclub and restaurant center L.A. Live!, which debuted October 2008. It is located adjacent to the Staples Center, the home of sports teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers. Another destination that could attract more people to the downtown area is the Downtown Art Walk, the popular art-gallery festival scheduled the second Thursday of every month.
Knauff said she is not leaving downtown entirely. She produces fashion shows for the monthly Dance Right events. The February event is scheduled to take place at The Standard hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In March, the event is scheduled to take place at the California Market Center. —Andrew Asch
