Rodeo Drive still paved with gold

French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc. paid $17,750 a square foot for a two-story, 6,200-square-foot building at 456 N. Rodeo Drive, next to a Ralph Lauren flagship. LVMH has six boutiques for various brands on the street, but hasn’t disclosed its plans for its recent purchase. The building’s previous owner, Sterling Organization of Palm Beach, Fla., bought it one day for $55 million and the next day flipped it for $110 million. After buying the property, Sterling approached LVMH about leasing the property.

Space is tight and expensive on Rodeo Drive. An average square foot of commercial space on the street rents for $50 to $70 per month. Yet the upscale retailers continue to line up. “In New York, luxury retailers have plenty of viable options where they can locate,” Brian D. Kosoy, Sterling’s president and chief executive officer, told Apparel News. “On the West Coast, it’s all about those three, high-value blocks of Rodeo Drive, where the world’s premier luxury brands must have a presence by planting their flag. As a result, when a circumstance presents itself to acquire a Rodeo Drive property, you aggressively pursue it, regardless of the complications involved in getting a deal done.”