LONDON — In Mayfair, retail is bucking the luxury slowdown.
Grosvenor, which owns prime retail property across London, is strategizing to keep the momentum going this summer with the Mount Street Neighbourhood Summer Festival as it celebrates the neighborhood’s fashion, food and art offerings.
The crown jewels of the Mount Street Neighbourhood include diamond jeweler Jessica McCormack, the luxury hotel The Connaught, fashion designer Huishan Zhang, the Prada-owned patisserie Marchesi and the restaurant Hideaway.
There’s also openings taking place this summer from chocolatier Barnaby, perfume brand Fueguia 1833 and celebrity facialist and aesthetician Melanie Grant.
Mount Street Neighbourhood Summer Festival takes place through Sunday.
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“After COVID-19, Mount Street came out of the block so strongly mainly because we’d cemented it as a neighborhood and we’ve made the strategic decision to really widen that tenant mix that’s less dominated by fashion,” said Joanna Lea, Mayfair retail portfolio director at Grosvenor.
Grosvenor has brought a set of consultants onboard to better understand the neighborhood’s clientele, which makes up 5 to 10 percent of the world’s global wealth.
The Mount Street Neighborhood has been rebranding itself image-wise and on social media since October, around the same time that Frieze London kicked off.
The neighborhood is being treated like a set of sails that reacts to the winds, in this case the cultural events taking place in and out of the city, from BST Hyde Park, Royal Ascot, the RCA Summer Exhibition to the Wimbledon Championships.
The English pub the Audley Public House will be hosting “A Week of Wimbledon” in July, serving up strawberries and cream with Pimm’s and Wimbledon Martinis, but the beer on tap will stay put.
Mount Street Neighbourhood Summer Festival takes place through Sunday.
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“When we think about programming Mount Street, we don’t operate like a normal shopping neighborhood and think about Mother’s Day or Easter, but instead it’s about thinking about an international high-net-worth calendar,” said Lea, adding that they also take national holidays such as Saudi National Day and Fourth of July.
American and Middle Eastern customers are the top spenders on Mount Street and it’s a clientele that Grosvenor caters to carefully by vetting any newcomers into the neighborhood.
“No brand will come to the estate without us having met them. Ultimately, it’s a people business and we want to do deals with great people because experience tells us that pays us dividends over the long term,” said Lea.
Even though the luxury slowdown hasn’t hit the Mount Street Neighborhood directly, luxury brands that are signing up for spaces in the neighborhood are taking a cautious approach by bidding on smaller units to test the waters before upgrading to larger spaces in the long run.