RETAIL
Junk Food Clothing to Open Store on Venice’s Abbot Kinney in LA
Junk Food Clothing will think big when it opens its first flagship store.
The 15-year-old pop-culture, graphic T-shirts and basics company will open a flagship store at a 2,777-square-foot space in early 2014 at 1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd., according to a statement from Blatteis & Schnur, a commercial real estate firm that specializes in retail properties and handled the deal. The space is located close to the cross streets of Abbot Kinney Boulevard and Westminster Avenue. It formerly housed Equator Books and furniture store Galerie Sommerlath and French 50s 60s.
The Junk Food flagship will display collections from the company’s Junk Food brand and its upcoming Stray Heart brand. The stylish basics line is scheduled to debut later this year and is made in America, according to a company statement. Junk Food Clothing declined to comment on its upcoming store.
Based in Culver City, Calif., Junk Food sells fleece hoodies, sweatshirts, sweatpants and vintage-style T-shirts. It holds licenses to movie, music and pop-culture properties including the NFL, Star Wars, The Beatles, Disney, Marvel, DC Comics, Coca-Cola and Popeye.
There’s been a land rush for retail space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the past couple of years. The former bohemian street with a sketchy reputation has attracted high-profile independent retailers and brands with a hip cachet to open stores there. Recently, Satine, A+R, Gant, Alternative Apparel, Lucky Brand, Jack Spade, LF Stores, Steven Alan and Toms Shoes opened shops there.
“Space on Abbot Kinney is limited at best with [exponentially] rising rents,” said Mike Rielly, executive vice president for Townsend & Associates, the commercial real estate and investment firm that worked to move Australian brand Flannel, Lucky and Scotch & Soda onto the street in the past 18 months. “The street has totally transformed itself into a hip retail corridor in LA,” he said.
Jay Luchs, executive vice president of Newmark Grubb Ellis Knight Frank, said the price of commercial space on Abbot Kinney Boulevard ranges from $9 to $10 per square foot for new deals but $3 to $5 for long-term tenants.
He expects prices to rise, but they won’t skyrocket, because many landlords on the street are striving to keep Abbot Kinney’s charm, which means mixing new tenants with local businesses. “New deals done are going to be higher,” Luchs said. “Every landlord is different, and every tenant is different.”
Luchs handled a deal in which Paris-headquartered fashion brand Iro will move onto the street. It will move into the former space of the Mystic Journey bookstore at 1319 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
