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In Boston the name Louis is to fashionable, high-priced mens-wear as the swan boats are to the Public Gardens. Now the 60-year-old Louis, Boston (known in the Hub as Lu-ee's), plans to open a 20,000-square-foot store in midtown Manhattan next year.
The novel move outside of Massachusetts will not only be a change for the family-owned retail company, but will be a force in the anticipated face-lift of Lexington Avenue, where the retail scene is shifting.
Louis has signed for part of the first two floors and the entire third floor of 135 E. 57th St. at Lexington Avenue, a Madison Equities property. Sources say retail rentals, designed by the architects Kohn Pedersen Fox, are about $125 per square foot. The Louis deal, however, was favorable for the retailer because the third floor had been planned as office space. The company hopes to open by August or September.
Next door in the same property will be the Place des Antiquaires, a lavish, 50,000-square-foot bilevel subterranean concourse of 75 art and antique dealers from around the world. Slated to open next month, the project will house shops, galleries and a...