California Apparel News

A new Fred Segal is coming to the Los Angeles area.

The pioneering boutique retailer announced Dec. 16 that it would open a new store in West Hollywood, Calif., in fall 2017.

The new Fred Segal will be located at 8500 Sunset, a condominium and hotel complex currently being built by developers CIM Group. The complex is located on the corner of Sunset and La Cienega boulevards. It is within walking distance of the Sunset Plaza retail district, which is the address of high-end boutiques such as H. Lorenzo.

Jay Luchs represented both the 8500 Sunset complex and Fred Segal in this deal. Luchs said the factors that made the deal stand out were the hundreds of parking spaces at 8500 Sunset, the central West Hollywood location and the real estate offered, with Fred Segal scheduled to take 22,000 square feet.

“We got another 10,000 square feet to lease; we’re hoping to bring a tenant with synergy with Fred Segal,” said Luchs, an executive vice president with NewmarkGrubbKnightFrank. “It’s a curated project; you just don’t lease it out. This place will be one of the special buildings in Los Angeles, and there is no tenant better than Fred Segal.” He said that Fred Segal took out a more than 10-year lease on the space.

The upcoming Fred Segal will offer 12 shops-in-shop and other departments such as a gifting concierge and bespoke tailoring. A Fred Segal statement also noted there will be event space for performances, fashion presentations and red-carpet events.

Other sections of Fred Segal will feature lifestyle and food departments. There will be a bakery and a coffee bar produced by San Francisco’s Tartine Bakery & Café. Also planned are a gym, a salon, a wine shop, a florist and a restaurant produced by restaurateur Bill Chait. It also will feature the U.S. debut of Mart at Fred Segal. The Mart has been opened at Fred Segal’s Japanese stores, and it offers high-end doughnuts on its menu. In April 2015, Fred Segal opened a store in Tokyo. In February 2016 it opened a shop in Yokohama, Japan.

Legendary retailer Fred Segal started his pioneering retail concept at 8100 Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles in 1961. In March, the building was sold to Canadian real estate group CormackHill for $43 million, according to media reports. The Melrose property remains a place of business for high-profile boutique retailers Ron Robinson and Ron Herman as well as for Mauro’s Café.

Fred Segal is now owned by an investment group that includes New York–headquartered media company Sandow and Evolution Media Partners, which is a venture of the entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency, private-equity firm TPG Growth, and Participant Media. In 2012, Sandow acquired the worldwide rights to the Fred Segal brand.

The team running the Fred Segal drive includes John Frierson, Fred Segal’s president. He served as an executive with CAA’s lifestyle/licensing group. He started his Fred Segal gig in March, according to his LinkedIn account. Allison Samek, a former Ron Herman executive, serves as Fred Segal’s chief executive officer.

Sandow’s Fred Segal took some test runs before announcing its West Hollywood emporium. It opened a shop atLos Angeles International Airport’s Tom Bradley International Terminal, and it continues to be in operation. In August 2014, it opened seven stores at the SLS Las Vegas casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The Fred Segal Collective, as the stores were called, closed one year later.

A lawsuit over Fred Segal’s sign on Melrose Avenue continues to be in play. In September, Sandow sued CormackHill in a suit that might eventually decide whether Fred Segal’s famous white, red and blue sign can stay at the Melrose compound.

According to Sandow’s legal complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court, CormackHill has illegally appropriated the famed Fred Segal trademark. “[It] had deceived consumers and traded on plaintiff’s goodwill by maintaining a Fred Segal sign on the building even though the location no longer has any association with Fred Segal.”

Sandow’s attorneys stated that the original tenants, who were granted the rights to use the Fred Segal name, moved out of the Melrose property. Those rights did not continue with the new property owner.

Attorneys for CormackHill requested in a November filing that the case be dismissed. The filing stated that the plaintiff’s argument had been misleading.

According to a 2001 contract made by Fred Segal, the founder of the retail store, the license to use the sign continues “in perpetuity if the Melrose property is used for retail sales or fashion merchandise,” wrote Emil W. Herich, a lawyer for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, which represents Cormack Hill.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants are scheduled to meet in the downtown Los Angeles U.S. District courthouse on Feb. 27, 2017, to discuss the case, according to court documents.