Upscale retail to adorn 'Streets of Buckhead'

Swanky, ritzy, playful and exclusive. That describes the six new retailers and a celebrity-studded gym that have signed leases at Ben Carter’s retail project in Buckhead. All of them may not be household names, but they sport luxury price tags.

Carter’s company, which is developing the $1.5 billion Streets of Buckhead, has signed new leases from Van Cleef & Arpels, the whimsical fine jewelry company from Paris with price tags as high as $115,000; Brunello Cucinelli, a line of luxury cashmere and furs (for as much as $12,000) from Italy; Bonpoint, luxury French clothing for children; Arthur, a line of French sleepwear and $49 boxer shorts; Billy Martin’s, an American company known for Western and “rock-n-roll” attire popular with stars from Bono to Madonna (boots as much as $4,000); and the gym Equinox, a small fitness chain where stars from Hilary Swank to Matt Damon have been spotted sweating it out in Los Angeles and New York. Membership dues start at $130.

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LOUIE FAVORITE / lfavorite@ajc.com

Work continues on the Streets of Buckhead project. Several high-end retailers have signed leases at the Ben Carter Properties development.

Old world luxury in Atlanta's new world style — The Streets of Buckhead has new leases signed by:
Van Cleef & Arpels: Whimsical fine jewelry and watches.

Sample price: Cultured pearl necklace with white-gold and diamond clasp, $31,000.

Brunello Cucinelli: Luxury Italian cashmere sweaters and fine clothing.

Sample prices: $400 blouses to $12,000 furs.

Bonpoint: French luxury clothing line for children.

Billy Martin's: Western and "rock-n-roll" fashions from leather jackets to jewelry. Sample prices: $1,250 leather jackets to $4,000 limited edition cowboy boots.

Arthur: French sleepwear and fine boxer shorts.

Sample prices: $49 boxers to $290 robes.

Equinox: Exclusive gym known for star-sitings in Los Angeles and New York.

Sample price: Memberships start at $130 a month.

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The Streets of Buckhead may be the biggest — and riskiest — bet in Atlanta real estate project right now.

When asked what he thinks when he looks out of his third floor Buckhead offices to the holes where his project is being built, Carter states, “I’m a brave man.”

Carter is the indefatigable developer of the Mall of Georgia who has developed a vision to transform Atlanta’s former raucous party district into a Buckhead Village that will rival Madison Ave. for shopping and dining.

It required putting together 37 properties and paying record prices for some of them, including $15 million for lease terminations.

His loan for buying the land totals more than $169 million, according to Alan Wexler at Databank.

“We were about $200 million at risk before we knew what we really had,” Carter said. By contrast, he said, “It cost me $250 million to build the Mall of Georgia.”

He has yet to secure a bank loan for construction that has begun on the site. Equity financing from CB Richard Ellis, his family and other partners currently is bankrolling the massive job of turning Georgia dirt into Hollywood-style gold.

Carter said he’d like to convert the financing into a bank loan, because the interest would go from double to single digits.

He also said he hopes to open with a hotel, though that will also depend on the economy. He has a letter of intent from Starwood Capital Group to develop the first U.S. outpost of Baccarat Hotel and Residences.

Carter says his project will be the most luxurious retail development Atlanta has ever seen —apologies to Phipps Plaza.

“We’re spending a lot of money trying to create a really distinctive architecture and look,” said Carter.

While granite and marble will front his five-square-block development that seeks to redefine upscale in Atlanta, brands from well-known to obscure will sell their wares inside. Hermes, the Parisian line of scarves and jewelry is probably his best-known retailer so far. Hermes will take a marquis corner.

Said Carter: “We instantly got a lot of credibility” for signing Hermes, which has been at Lenox for 15 years.

Carter, it seems, finally has gotten the attention of high-end European retailers. But it hasn’t been easy.

He has been scorching the skies in his personal plane, traveling to New York and Europe with his family, including daughter Palmer who is the vice president of leasing. He said they generally leave Tuesday each week and are back by Friday, in their quest to woo retailers, who, unlike mainstream brands have no written development plans.

“There’s probably 50 people who make decisions for all the luxury retailers. They want to get to know you,” said Carter. “One commitment can encourage others.”

Many of the retailers he has signed will develop no more than one or two projects in the United States in the coming years.

While luxury consumers also are feeling economic pain, Todd Slater, a retail research analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in New York, thinks it will be short lived. Long-term projects like Carter’s “have every chance of succeeding,” said Slater.

Slater said the stores Carter has signed are “some of the most spectacular names to come to Atlanta in my view. The more limited the distribution, the better. I mean who needs another Tiffany’s?”

The retailers who have signed leases are on-board with Carter’s upscale vision. (They also believe Atlantans have the deep pockets to support high-end retailers that may not be household names, even as the economy has faltered.)

“The project is being developed under the watchful eye and the taste level of Ben Carter, who’s an Atlanta native,” said Doug Newton from California, the CEO of Billy Martin’s. “He has so much of his heart in his vision behind this product, that that is good enough for me.” Billy Martin’s will have only three U.S. stores by the end of next year: Atlanta, New York and Las Vegas. A fourth, now closed, is relocating in Los Angeles.

Emmanuel Perrin, president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels for the Americas, added: “I have to say that the project that Ben Carter Properties put together is one of the most impressive that I’ve seen in a while. That’s probably why we have not been present in Atlanta before. We didn’t feel any of the two malls are the right environment for us.”

Laurent Bourrelly, the CEO of Arthur USA, admits his brand is “not well known,” even in France. But the brand is growing, and he said, “On paper, the Streets of Buckhead looked like a marvelous project. It looks like the environment we need to be in: pretty expensive, high-end and good quality.”

Scott Rosen, chief operating officer of Equinox, confirmed the only lease he has signed in Atlanta is in Carter’s project because of “the luxury profile of the mix of tenants and Ben’s vision for having a special retail address in Buckhead along the lines of Rodeo Drive or Madison Avenue.”Still, Carter has a ways to go to fill the 340,000 square feet of retail space before the project opens next fall. Right now, he has about a dozen stores signed, plus three marquee restaurants.

Tisha Maley is the assistant vice president of leasing for Simon Property Group, which owns Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square malls.

“Together, Phipps and Lenox have about 55 retailers that are exclusive to Atlanta or Georgia. Combined, the two centers have over $1 billion worth of business [annually], so we feel very confident in our business and the assets that we own. We really have become a destination serving a five-state area.”

She ticked off dozens of retailers new to the malls or that have expanded in the last three years, from Ed Hardy and Cartier to Tory Burch and Jimmy Choo.

“Are we having a challenging time leasing to luxury?” said Maley. “No, absolutely not.”