December 8, 2006

Urban Fabric
Is Urban Outfitters Stockholm the best-looking store to open in Europe this year?

By JOHN RYAN

Consider the following as a retail proposition. You look for a property to rent in the most expensive area in a high-price city. You opt to occupy a listed building and then spend a great deal of money restoring its interior.

Couple this with the time taken to make this kind of project a reality and you are going to be faced with a hefty bill before you start trading.

Now, think about doing all of this in a market where you are not even known.

You may well wonder if the finance director had ingested Class A drugs before looking at the year’s capital expenditures budget.

Most examples of this kind of market debut in the UK are from US retailers. Abercrombie & Fitch’s remodelling of the former Jil Sander store in Savile Row and Whole Foods Markets’ Barkers department store project stand out as two such instances.

Abercrombie & Fitch appears likely to open in February and a final date for the completion of the Whole Foods store has yet to be set, but if you want an illustration of what is possible, you have to leave the UK and head to Stockholm.

Two weeks ago, Urban Outfitters opened its most expensive European store to date, in a former art deco cinema dating from 1915. Originally dubbed the Roda Kvarn (Red Barn), this was the city’s oldest cinema.

However, the arrival of the multiplex in various locations in Stockholm meant that the cinema’s audience numbers fell to the point that it was no longer a commercially viable business.

To continue reading, click on the link to the left to download the complete article in PDF format.