One of the world's top luxury brands is proceeding with the long-planned redevelopment of several vacant buildings on one of the nation's most high-end corners in retail real estate.
LVMH, the French luxury conglomerate and parent company for retailer Louis Vuitton, has filed plans for a sprawling flagship retail building with several restaurants, a brand museum and a large rooftop garden on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
The proposal comes almost seven years after Brooks Brothers shut its store in the 23,000-square-foot building at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard. Voters in 2023 rejected LVMH's plan to build a hotel on the site.
"Everyone's really excited to activate this part of Rodeo and to actually see something built there," Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Carine Mamann, who helps match up luxury brands and luxury real estate on the famed three-block strip, told CoStar News. "It's going to be great for all tenants. When I'm touring the street, they're all excited and they want to know what's happening on this corner."
The new Louis Vuitton store is expected to continue the retailer's tradition of making major investments to try for a grand impression on big spenders. LVMH has tapped award-winning architect Frank Gehry to design a new exterior with a rippling, amorphous facade similar to the architect's work at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. The retailer reportedly also hired another well-known architect, Peter Marino, to design the interiors.
The new flagship, with two structures connected across an alley by two pedestrian bridges, would replace properties across 456 N. Rodeo Drive, 468 N. Rodeo Drive, 449-453 N. Beverly Drive and 461-465 N. Beverly Drive, creating a commercial complex and Southern California flagship hub for the Paris retailer.
A Rodeo Drive entrance would open onto a three-level, 45,000-square-foot store with a VIP client level and a rooftop garden, while a second entrance on Beverly Drive would open onto a 55,000-square-foot art exhibition space with two restaurants, according to a report in fashion trade publication WWD. The plans must still go through several city planning reviews before moving to the Beverly Hills City Council for final approval.
All about experience
Luxury retailers on Rodeo Drive are increasingly turning to selling food and beverages to deepen engagement with shoppers and stand out in an experience-driven retail landscape, Mamann said.
Louis Vuitton’s planned flagship would include both a casual café and a full-scale fine dining restaurant. The brand operates restaurants in Paris and New York, with a focus on luxury snacking and fine dining. In Paris, there's a café called Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton, while Le Café Louis Vuitton in New York is on the fourth floor of the 57th Street store in Manhattan.
“There historically hasn’t been much [food and beverage business] on Rodeo,” Mamann said. “But now retailers are activating rooftops and upper floors with restaurants. It’s about tying the whole experience together.”
Gucci led the charge with its Osteria concept — an upscale Italian restaurant perched above its Rodeo Drive boutique — which Mamann described as “an amazing experience.” Now Dior is following suit with a café of its own, and Louis Vuitton’s planned dining components suggest the trend is becoming a fixture of ultra-luxury retail in Beverly Hills.
LVMH is growing its Beverly Hills footprint even as luxury spending is on the decline in the U.S., with stock market volatility and threats of trade wars causing some high-end shoppers to close their wallets. Luxury sales fell by 7% year-over-year in both January and February, on par with 2024’s 8% year-over-year decline in the sector, according to data firm Consumer Edge.
LVMH's total sales declined by 3% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025, with sales at the division housing Louis Vuitton and other luxury apparel brands down by 5%. The dip portends "a more difficult trading environment for the broader luxury sector," according to RBC analyst Piral Dadhania.
Luxury focus
LVMH, whose other brands include Sephora and Tiffany & Co., already owns much of Rodeo Drive. The company is building a 48,000-square-foot, three-story flagship for its Dior brand, complete with a 1,440-square-foot rooftop restaurant that's expected to open next year. LVMH bought the building for $122 million in 2016.
The French retail company opened the first permanent Givenchy store in Los Angeles in August on Rodeo Drive with the debut of a 4,500-square-foot space in the historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Anderton Court Shops complex at 332 N. Rodeo Drive. It will nearly double that footprint in the new year with a second store, making the location Givenchy's first flagship on the West Coast.
LVMH is also expanding the Rodeo Drive building housing Bulgari and has added shops for watchmakers Patek Phillipe and Rolex at the street level of the former Luxe hotel at 360 N. Rodeo Drive, a building it acquired in 2021 for $200 million.
LVMH paid $245 million for the former Brooks Brothers store in 2018 and pitched plans to convert the site into a five-star Cheval Blanc hotel, but residents voted against it in 2023.
“Everyone was really excited about the hotel. That would have been a complete game changer,” Mamann said. “But this is something we’re also very excited about.”