Shinsegae Department Store, which is building a "luxury town" centered on its main store in Jung District, Seoul, is in the final stretch of construction ahead of the mid-next-month reopening of the main building (The Reserve) after renovations.
According to the industry on the 20th, Shinsegae Department Store has put up temporary walls on parts of the main building's exterior and is working on the facade (the front exterior wall with the building's entrance) since last month. Currently, temporary walls cover almost the entire exterior except for the media facade (Shinsegae Square).
A sign placed outside the construction site reads "Louis Vuitton Shinsegae Main Store exterior facade construction," ordered by Louis Vuitton Korea. The construction period runs from September this year to March next year.
In the industry, there is speculation that Shinsegae, which is bringing in a large number of Louis Vuitton stores to the main building, has given the facade to Louis Vuitton. According to the industry, Louis Vuitton plans to open women's and men's apparel, accessories, a chocolate shop, and a restaurant across five floors (1, 2, 3, 5, and 6) of the main building at Shinsegae's main store. Among these, the chocolate shop will be the fourth in the world after Paris, Singapore, and Shanghai, and the first in Korea.
In addition, a two-story Hermès store will open on the first and second floors, and a Cartier store will open on the first floor. Currently, in the main building, only some brands such as Hermès, Celine, and Loewe are operating on the first, second, and third floors. A department store industry source said, "For key luxury brands that represent a store, facade space is sometimes provided so the brand image can be constantly exposed."
A Shinsegae Department Store official said, "With the reopening of The Reserve after renovations imminent, we put up temporary walls on the building's exterior," adding, "We are discussing with the brand how to configure the external facade."
The project to turn Shinsegae's main store into a town is a key initiative of Chung Yoo-kyung, chair of Shinsegae Co. The gist is to link the main building, the new building, and the former Cheil Bank building, and to attract the top luxury "Erusha" (Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Chanel) stores, each at the largest scale in Korea, to target VVIPs.
To that end, Shinsegae renovated the former Cheil Bank head office in April and opened it under the name "The Heritage." It moved the Chanel store that had been on the first and second floors of the main building to the first and second floors there. At about 700 pyeong, it is the largest Chanel store in a Korean department store. Unusually, it put up a Chanel sign on the department store's exterior wall and created a dedicated entrance. Along with this, the main building was newly named "The Reserve," and the new building "The Estate."
Through this, the plan is to make the area around Shinsegae Department Store's main store a luxury landmark and draw luxury VIP customers from home and abroad. In fact, thanks to The Heritage's opening in April, VIP sales at Shinsegae's main store in the second quarter of this year rose 11.4% from a year earlier.
Bae Song-yi, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, said, "Shinsegae's main store is an ultra-large store with sales exceeding 1 trillion won, and before the renovation, foreigners accounted for as much as 20% of sales," adding, "The effect of the reopening after the renovation will be significant."