California Apparel News

Vacancies are getting harder to find in Los Angeles as more stores cruise for good locations in some of the more popular retail areas of town.

Higher-end outposts that cater to a well-heeled crowd are seeing consumers return to their previous spending levels. That’s been helped by a vibrant stock market and more jobs. In California, the unemployment rate fell from 10.1 percent in October 2012 to 8.7 percent this past October.

“It has definitely been a good year for retail,” said Philip Klaparda, senior associate at Dembo Realty in Beverly Hills, which tracks local retail real estate activity.

Retail vacancies are hovering around 5 percent on such streets as Robertson Boulevard, Melrose Avenue and West Third Street. There is practically no room to rent on Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive, where stores on the tony shopping street fetch a monthly lease rate of $50 a square foot.

On Robertson Boulevard, where rents are going for $12 to $15 a square foot, there has been a lot of activity as some stores have left and others have come in just as quickly.

Opening this spring is The Kooples, a hip French retail chain that has chosen Los Angeles to be the spot where it opens its first U.S. store. “They selected Robertson over New York City for their first store,” Klaparda said.

The Kooples is taking over the 3,000-square-foot corner slot once occupied by 7 For All Mankind at 100 S. Robertson Blvd.

Moods of Norway left Robertson Boulevard earlier this year, thinking too many chains were moving in. But no sooner had Moods left than designer Eileen Fischer’s retail concern snapped up the space. The managers took possession of the keys on Dec. 1 and plan a spring opening.

Another overseas label popping up on the street is iiJin, a Hong Kong–based luxury fashion brand whose offerings include clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories. That store is opening soon at 116 S. Robertson Blvd.

Retail activity has also been busy on North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, where rents have inched up to $15 a square foot compared with $10 a square foot last year.

New to the thoroughfare is Sandro, a French fashion fave that quietly opened its doors on Oct. 26 at 310 N. Beverly Drive. Maje, another French retailer, also had a quiet opening recently on Beverly Drive. And Iro, a European brand, is opening its first U.S. store soon on Beverly Drive.

The European retailers are joining other new stores such as Theory and Alice + Olivia. “There virtually is no vacancy on Beverly Drive,” Klaparda said.

With consumer spending on the rise, vacancy rates among the industrial warehouses that dot Southern California have dropped to 3.7 percent this year from 4.5 percent last year. Lease rates are up to 65 cents a square foot compared with 57 cents a square foot last year.