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It has been established for years as the most expensive shopping district in one of the world's richest cities but, as Bond Street becomes more mainstream, Grosvenor is looking around the corner to give the super-wealthy the ultra-premium retail experience they seek.
The property investor plans to turn Mount Street and neighbouring Carlos Place in the heart of Mayfair into an exclusive enclave - a retail playground for the super-rich based on Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Helen Franks, the head of retail and commercial lettings at Grosvenor, said: "Bond Street has become too accessible. Mount Street is not a passing-trade destination, We want people who will come here in their chauffeur-driven convertibles and buy ten pairs of Louboutin shoes."
On Mount Street the group, which has a sprawling property empire covering 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia, has five to ten brands vying for every vacant slot, Ms Franks said. "Demand is hugely outstripping supply."
This year Loewe, part of the French LVMH luxury stable, took a site on the street, while RRL, Ralph Lauren's jeans brand, is moving in this autumn. Grosvenor is talking to the perfumier Jo Malone about a concept store - Jo Loves - as well as Italy's Bottega Veneta and HermÈs crockery.
Mount Street's rise began with the arrival of Marc Jacobs in 2006, Ms Franks said. Since then, Grosvenor, which is investing £10 million in a "makeover" of the area, has signed Balenciaga, the Spanish high-fashion brand owned by PPR, another French conglomerate.
It is now targeting a list of ten "dream ticket" names, including Celine Givenchy, Erdem, Alaia, Chloé and Yves Saint Laurent, which it is "desperate" to place, Ms Franks said. With a vacancy rate of 3 to 4 per cent, a site comes free only once every six months. The developer frequently turns away stores, including the edgy French fashion newcomer The Kooples, which are deemed not to be sufficiently high-end.
Grosvenor is hoping to tempt wellestablished brands such as Christian Dior away from Sloane Square or Bond Street, providing that they give up their other locations. It will only accept retailers who are prepared to commit to a single store in the city.
The property group is also planning to redevelop Carlos Place to recreate French-style "maisons" - fashion houses with offices above the stores. Roland Mouret, the dressmaker, has already taken a site and the group is in talks to fill the house next door.
Rents on the lesser-known streets are £325 a sq ft, compared with about £950 on Bond Street, and the conversion rate of browsing to buying is "very high" compared with elsewhere in the West End, Ms Franks said.
She said there had been no friction with landlords on Sloane Street or Bond Street over poaching suggestions.
"A vacancy on Bond Street goes in nanoseconds," she said.
The Mount Street clientele fall into fashionista types and "affluent, wellheeled Brits and Europeans" with fewer visitors from the Middle East compared with the rest of the quarter. The Mount Street redevelopment should be complete by 2016, Grosvenor said. 'We want people to be chauffered here and buy ten pairs of Louboutins'
The plan is to turn Mount Street into a retail playground for the super-rich
By Emily Ford - The Times - 17th October 2011
