MARK, the pan-European real estate investment manager, has signed urban fashion brand KITH as the retail occupier to its Pershing Hall redevelopment in central Paris.

KITH has taken 1,500 sq. m. (16,000 sq. ft.) of space across the lower three floors on a 10-year lease. The store, which opened last week, is KITH’s largest to date and the retailer’s first European flagship.

MARK-advised fund MERP III acquired Pershing Hall in 2018. Over €20m has been invested into transforming the iconic building from a luxury hotel into a flagship mixed-use asset, with 1,300 sq. m. (14,000 sq. ft.) of high quality creative office space created on the upper four floors in addition to the retail space being fully occupied by KITH.

MARK worked closely with KITH throughout the development process, including securing a new building permit, to help create an innovative retail destination.

The building was delivered with a basic shell and core fit out to give KITH greater flexibility over the design. As with previous KITH stores, the new Paris boutique was designed by Snarkitecture, the design studio co-founded by renowned US artist Daniel Arsham.

Snarkitecture also designed the all-day Sadelle’s bar and restaurant contained in the glass-covered courtyard at Pershing Hall, which features a lush vertical green wall initially created by world renowned botanist Patrick Blanc, and which was fully revamped during the project.

Located at 49 Rue Pierre Charron, Pershing Hall is just minutes away from Avenue des Champs Élysées and sits right in the heart of Paris’s Golden Triangle, one of the French capital’s most attractive locations and home to fashion houses Chanel, Saint Laurent, Dior and Balmain. The new KITH flagship store will benefit from the area’s high footfall and strong transport connectivity.

The building was originally a 19th century private mansion that was later purchased by the American Legion in 1928 to serve as a World War One memorial before becoming a luxury hotel.

Marcus Meijer, CEO at MARK, comments: “Our welcoming of KITH to Pershing Hall is a timely reminder that city centre retail still has a future. The luxury market in particular has demonstrated a special resilience and locations underpinned by solid fundamentals such as high footfall and strong transport connectivity will perform well as we enter the recovery period.

“Key to retail’s success is investors working with occupiers collaboratively, as we have done with KITH, to help create new destinations that have experience at their core. With its high quality design, we expect KITH’s new flagship at Pershing Hall to be the top of the list for any shopper visiting Paris.

“Coronavirus has accelerated many of the structural shifts impacting real estate and we see a historic opportunity to reposition or repurpose existing assets as we have done with Pershing Hall.”

In addition to Pershing Hall, MARK is repositioning a number of landmark and historic buildings across Europe, including the former Whiteleys department store in London, which is being transformed into luxury apartments, a Six Senses hotel and new retail space.