Will This be the Most Expensive Store Ever Built on Rodeo Drive?
Louis Vuitton’s Rodeo Drive Mega-Flagship: Strategy & Impact
Louis Vuitton is planning a 100,000-sq-ft "mega-flagship" on Rodeo Drive, set for 2029. The Frank Gehry–designed exterior (a sculptural, white "lotus" façade) and Peter Marino interiors will house full men's, women's, jewelry, and travel collections – plus a café, galleries, and a 100-seat rooftop restaurant.
Louis Vuitton's Beverly Hills Legacy
Louis Vuitton's presence on Rodeo Drive dates back to the early 1980s, marking its commitment to the burgeoning luxury market in Beverly Hills. The Beverly Hills store became a top-performing flagship under the leadership of Ron Michaels during the 1990s through the early 2000s. Michaels' visionary retail leadership and deep understanding of the Southern California luxury clientele were instrumental in securing the maison's current location at 295 North Rodeo Drive—a cornerstone of the brand's West Coast presence.
Over time, the store evolved from a traditional retail outpost into a modern, architectural icon that now includes immersive client experiences, high jewelry salons, and exclusive capsule offerings. The Beverly Hills flagship remains one of Louis Vuitton's most strategic doors globally for sales volume and UHNW engagement.
Visualizing Louis Vuitton’s new Beverly Hills Flagship: A Dual-Entry Experience
LVMH says the new store will deliver a "full Louis Vuitton lifestyle experience," with a permanent exhibition space and branded eateries. In other words, this megastore is as much a brand statement and destination as a high-volume retail experiential store.1
To help visualize the scale and spatial logic of Louis Vuitton's upcoming Beverly Hills flagship, imagine a dual-entry experience that spans an entire city block—from Rodeo Drive to Beverly Drive—linked by a skybridge for a seamless client journey.
On the Rodeo Drive side, the flagship will span approximately 45,000 square feet across three retail levels, each organized by strategic product verticals: Women's and Men's ready-to-wear, Travel, Watches and jewelry, and Beauty and fragrance. At the crown of this structure, a rooftop garden terrace and private client salons will serve as a high-touch hospitality zone, blurring the lines between commerce and experience.
On the opposite side of the block, the former Paley Center for Media at 465 North Beverly Drive—currently housing the Mr. Brainwash pop-up art exhibit—will be permanently repurposed into a 55,000 square-foot exhibition and hospitality venue. Accessed via Beverly Drive, this annex will feature:
A ground-level café and exhibition lobby
Two complete levels of immersive exhibition space
A rooftop restaurant with indoor-outdoor seating and capacity for 100 guests, leveraging the region's climate for open-air dining
Critically, the two structures, divided by a pedestrian alleyway, will be connected via a bridging passageway, enabling uninterrupted circulation between retail and experiential zones. The architectural and operational strategy signals a broader ambition: to transform the flagship into a high-performance retail asset and a branded cultural landmark.
Two of the most valuable intersections within Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle—Rodeo Drive at Santa Monica Boulevard and Beverly Drive at Santa Monica—will soon be anchored by a contiguous, high-touch Louis Vuitton retail ecosystem, transforming the district into a fully immersive brand destination.
Architecture and Design: Gehry Meets Marino
The Beverly Hills Louis Vuitton flagship is noteworthy for pairing two design titans:
Frank Gehry is a Pritzker Prize winner whose LA work includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall and global landmarks like the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and the Guggenheim Bilbao.2 Gehry's LA pedigree dates back to his residence (1978) and the Chiat/Day "Binoculars" building; he has over 20 structures in the city of Los Angeles. With the LV project, Gehry brings his signature undulating steel forms to Beverly Hills similar design approach to the Fondation LV, which begun after Bernard Arnault admired his Guggenheim Bilbao work there.3
Peter Marino, the interior architect, is equally renowned in luxury retail. He has designed hundreds of Vuitton and Dior boutiques worldwide, and has a long partnership with Chanel. Marino famously designed Chanel's Rodeo store and the House of Dior in Paris flagship and planned LVMH's shelved Cheval Blanc Beverly Hills hotel. His polished interiors often blend contemporary art with brand heritage. For example, the new Chanel Rodeo Flagship store features Jean-Michel Othoniel's "Golden Lasso" and layered luxury finishes. In contrast, Dior's Paris flagship (and likely the new House of Dior on Rodeo Drive) integrates art-filled lounges.
Flagship‑Level Stores (>$100M)
Count: Very few LV stores have reached nine figures in annual sales. I estimate that 10–15 boutiques globally exceed $100M/year. These are typically the brand's most iconic flagships.
Iconic examples include Paris Champs‑Élysées (current site), NYC Fifth Avenue, Tokyo (Ginza/Shin‑Marunouchi), and Hong Kong (Canton Rd).
Regional megastores: Key high-volume outlets likely include Seoul (Gangnam), Dubai (Mall of the Emirates or DIFC), Shanghai (Nanjing West Road or IFC mall), and Singapore (Marina Bay Sands).
Context: By comparison, Tiffany's NYC "Landmark" Fifth Avenue store does approximately $400M annually4 (the world's largest luxury store by area), and is cited as 10% of Tiffany's sales. Among peers, Hermès Beverly Hills is estimated at $150M annually, CHANEL Rodeo Drive is $120M, whereas Louis Vuitton's smaller store inside Saks Beverly Hills does $35M (industry sources).
Projected Sales: New Louis Vuitton Rodeo Drive Flagship
Hospitality/gallery: The 55,000 sq. ft. of café/restaurant/gallery space is primarily for branding and guest services, not counted at normal retail productivity. (Even if the restaurant adds $10–$20M, total sales remain dominated by retail.)
Local peers: For context, a 45K sq. ft. flagship at $5K/sq. ft. ($225M) would be inline with local benchmarks. By comparison, Hermès Rodeo (17K sq. ft.) does $150M annually and CHANEL (25K sq. ft.) does $120M annually, $8.8K and $4.8K per sq. ft. respectively. Even the conservative $225M scenario is 1.5X the Hermès BH level. At $450M–$675M, the Rodeo store would set a new high‐water mark (well above regional peers), justified by LV's volume and iconic brand draw.
Margins and costs must be considered. Luxury margins can be high, but a flagship carries heavy expenses. For example, at $300M annual sales and a 50% gross margin, gross profit is $150M. Out of that, high rent/ownership costs (BH property taxes 1% of value = several million), utilities, and maintenance (especially for bespoke architecture), plus a large payroll (possibly hundreds of staff with luxury salaries) quickly add up. If operating costs run 20–30% of sales, the store might net a 20–30% profit margin. In short, even with strong per sq. ft. sales, the flagship's profitability is modest relative to brand impact.
Louis Vuitton vs LVMH Financials
Fiscal top lines:
LVMH 2024: €84.7B
LV (2022 est.): $20B
LV share: 24% of LVMH Group
LVMH total (2024): €84.7 billion in (FY2024 organic growth +1%.)
Louis Vuitton: Estimated €20 billion ($21B) in 20225 (first time over €20B), likely similar scale in 2023/24.
Comparative share: In 2024, Fashion & Leather Goods was €41.1B (49% of group). Louis Vuitton alone is about half of that and implies LV is roughly 24% of LVMH’s revenues.
Operations and Talent for a Megastore: A Ground-Level View
Having worked directly for Hermès of Paris on Rodeo Drive, supported the Retail Business Office at FENDI, and participated in Cartier's Retail Management Program based on Rodeo Drive, I've seen firsthand what it takes to operate a global flagship. Running a 100,000-square-foot luxury emporium like Louis Vuitton's upcoming Rodeo flagship is not simply about staffing at scale—it's about orchestrating a vertically integrated client ecosystem under one roof.
Based on standard luxury staffing ratios, Hermès boutiques, averaging 6,500 square feet, typically employ over 20 full-time client advisors—significantly more than Gucci or Prada. Extrapolating this to a footprint 7X larger, I estimate Louis Vuitton Rodeo will require between 150 to 200+ retail employees, including category-specific managers + specialists, across women's, men's, leather goods, watches, jewelry, and fragrance. Layered on top of this are dedicated VIP services, concierge staff, and clienteling specialists, who must operate fluently across multiple CRM platforms, service protocols, and local client expectations. Behind the scenes, the scale and complexity multiply. And that does not include café, restaurant, and exhibit staffing needs.
To support the growth and continue to delight customers, a retail store of this magnitude will have the following organizational structure:
In addition, this new flagship will also necessitate local corporate support functions that will be assigned specifically to this store:
Regional Merchandising Team: oversees high-volume, high-SKU flows across retail and hospitality units.
Regional Inventory Control & Supply Team: manage same-day transfers, after-sales, and integration with e-commerce operations
In-store HR Manager and Team: oversees talent development, onboarding, and performance calibration.
Facilities, IT, and Security team: calibrated for a hybrid environment, which included fine jewelry inventory, food and beverage operations, and a rotating gallery program.
From my experience at FENDI, I know that luxury back-office teams often function like internal consultancies, supporting daily trade and long-term brand positioning. Cartier, for example, takes a highly structured approach to training, governance, and in-store rituals to ensure alignment with maison-level standards. At Hermès, I observed firsthand how local management is empowered with real-time merchandising and client resolution decision rights—a decentralized model I expect LVMH to replicate here.
Ultimately, Louis Vuitton's Rodeo Drive megastore will function less like a boutique and more like a standalone business unit, complete with its own vertical P&L, strategic headcount planning, and talent architecture designed to deliver not just sales, but brand immersion at scale.
The Evolution of Luxury Retail on Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive has long been a symbol of luxury retail on the West Coast, pivotally shaping the identities of leading Maisons such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci. These flagship locations reflect each brand's evolving aesthetic and business strategy and serve as cultural landmarks that drive global brand equity and client loyalty.
Rodeo Drive's Luxury-Corridor Transformation
Beverly Hills is in the midst of a luxury overhaul. Recent and planned Rodeo Drive projects include:
Chanel—It opened in May 2023 at 400 N. Rodeo. A 25,000 sq. ft. four-story boutique (up from 11,500 sq. ft.), it's now the largest Chanel store in the U.S The sleek white façade and multi-level atrium project a modern brand image.
Christian Dior – Consolidating its men's, women's, and children's lines into one "House of Dior" at 317–323 N. Rodeo. Plans call for a 3‑story, 47,900 sq. ft. flagship with outdoor terraces on each floor and a rooftop café. Work is underway (following LVMH's $122M purchase of the site), with a projected 2026 opening.
Cartier – Approved a new three-story Rodeo boutique at 370 N. Rodeo. The new 15,00 sq. ft. building (45 ft tall) will be one of Cartier's key "temple" stores Cartier North America projects $100M+ annual sales from this flagship (opening 2028)
Together, these projects (along with smaller moves by Boucheron, and Loro Piana) signal Rodeo's evolution into a mega luxury district. Each new flagship raises the bar: Dior's combined store will dwarf the current Dior men's and women's shops. Chanel's new building was explicitly styled to complement Marino's neighboring Hermès façade.
LVMH's Beverly Hills Real Estate Bet
Louis Vuitton's Rodeo flagship caps off a wave of LVMH real estate investment in Beverly Hills. In the last decade, LVMH has plowed roughly $700 million+ into Golden Triangle properties.
This raises a broader question: is LVMH acting as much as a real-estate developer as a brand house? By controlling prime Rodeo parcels and raising their use-value (from a moderate Brooks Brothers store to a Gehry masterpiece), LVMH is exercising land-banking power. The luxury conglomerate's emerging "campus" on Rodeo/Beverly Dr. extends beyond LV: it owns the adjacent Dior/Bijan site, and its brands line the street (Dior, Hermès, Fendi, etc.). In effect, LVMH is both brand guardian and corridor master planner.
In the next installment (Part 2), I will explore LVMH's real estate strategy in depth and whether the conglomerate's Rodeo Drive play presages more such mixed-use luxury developments.
Sources: Cooperate financial filings; real estate press; WWD, Business of Fashion, Financial Times, and local press; city planning documents and industry expertise. (All data cited above.)
Great piece! I think more people need to understand how luxury branding uses space and setting to create demand. This is a must-read for anyone in retail or fashion marketing.
Luxury retail is clearly playing a whole different game. When stores look like palaces, you realize they’re not just selling fashion, they’re selling status, storytelling, and dreams.