Saturday, November 14, 2015

CB2 Cites High Rent: Plans to Close Midtown Location Next Month

Furniture retailer to become latest casualty in midtown.

Northbrook, Illinois-based CB2, a division of Crate & Barrel, will close their lone Atlanta location in midtown on December 13th.  The store, located in the lobby level of the 1010 Midtown condo building on Peachtree Street, opened in 2010, and is reportedly closing due to a rent increase.

A liquidation sale will reportedly begin during the first week in December with no immediate plans to relocate or reopen elsewhere.  

Another store in Santa Monica, California is also slated to close but reportedly not until late January 2016.  The Santa Monica store reportedly never received enough traffic to justify staying open.  

There are currently ten CB2 locations domestically and three internationally.    

CB2 is not the first furniture store to close in midtown Atlanta.  Bobby Berk Home, a New York-based furniture retailer, opened in late 2011 at 805 Peachtree Street, and closed in late 2013. Locally owned "Yes Home" closed at the Metropolis in 2011 after seven years in business. 

A number of other businesses have recently closed in midtown including Republic of Couture, a designer clothing store, and Max's Wine Dive, a restaurant.  

Crate & Barrel will continue to operate stores in Buckhead at The Shops Around Lenox and in Alpharetta at Avalon.  (The Avalon location represents the relocation of the store formerly on North Point Parkway near North Point Mall.)  Crate & Barrel closed its store at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody in 2008.  

What are your thoughts about CB2?  Are you surprised they are closing?  With the struggles along Peachtree Street in midtown, will the retailers opening in Ponce City Market suffer the same fate or will they thrive where Peachtree merchants have failed?  

Please share your thoughts below.  

23 comments:

Stacy said...

Any idea what's going into the old C&B space by North Point? There's construction going on there.

Atlantan99 said...

Hi Stacy,

As far as I know the space is being slit into at least two smaller spaces but no leases have been signed for new tenants.

I will update with another post should I receive any new information about the property.

Thanks for your comments and readership.

Jenna said...

Totally disappointed, love CB2!

vespajet said...

CB2 closing is no big loss, as there are plenty of similar chains with locations in Atlanta like Room & Board, By Design and Design Within Reach.

mowogo said...

The clearance sale will be the one and only time I will visit CB2. Didn't really know it existed, and while it has some interesting stuff, did not really market themselves well for the area.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely hate this. I love this store! .... I'm more shocked that they are leaving Atlanta totally.

Shannon Fain said...

Hate to see them go, but as a resident of Midtown we need more day to day places, NOT boutiques, specialty stores, high end places etc. Midtown is a thriving residential area, not a tourist area, we need places where you can go buy simple undershirts for example, or socks. I am loving the Ace Hardware that opened on Juniper for example. I know the CB2 space is too small but something like a TJ Maxx or a Ross would be great. If you have visited LoDo in Denver, the area has an amazing mix of high end places and every day type places.

AJ said...

Wonder if the rent increase is the actual reason... As for the commenter who says there are similar chains - CB2 is nowhere near the price point of Room & Board. Not sure about the 2 other places but CB2 & R&B are way different places. I liked the store and I think their aim is for city dwellers with smaller spaces, so it's location was good. I do agree that Midtown does need everyday shops, but it's a shame that CB2 is the latest casualty.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Shannon. As a resident of the area, it is really a shame that there are so many storefronts in these new buildings completely unused, and it is precisely because of some really bizarre pricing decisions on the part of the building operators. The whole Juniper side of the PWC/Loews building has never been occupied. Why? There should at least be a deli/convenience store there, but clearly it is too expensive. Half of the peachtree frontage is empty because of the clothing store that closed, which I could never understand how that large of a place could ever stay open selling extremely expensive club-wear. At what point do they start cutting deals to get these places running? It's very frustrating! So much lost potential.

Anonymous said...

I've been there several times recently, including this weekend and the traffic there has been fine.

Who compared CB2 to Design within Reach? Man, that's like comparing a BMW to a Ferrari as far as price points go. I like CB2 because of their price points for some of the less functional but more decorative pieces. Designs were good and prices seemed reasonable. They are more comparable to West Elm and Z Gallerie than they are to Room and Board and Design within Reach.

runmonkeyboy said...

It seems that the only thing that really thrives on Peachtree are bars and restaurants. As long as I've lived in Midtown it just doesn't seem that boutique clothing and homegood/furniture stores do well here. In theory with the amount of residents in the area they should do well, but people still seem to want to get in their car and gravitate towards known chain stores. I wonder if a Banana Republic or J. Crew were to open in one of the store fronts if it would do OK or if people in the area still find it weird to walk down the street to go shopping for clothes and furniture as opposed to getting in the car to go to Atlantic Station or Ponce City Market.

Tim said...

re: Wonder if the rent increase is the actual reason...

i tend to believe it, and i'm not surprised. they even mentioned that the other closing (in santa monica) was due to lack of traffic. it's sad watching midtown retail struggle to even take off due to rent being too high, among other things...

Anonymous said...

Rent being too high is interesting because it doesn't feel like demand for space is all that great. There are still "prime" locations sitting vacant.

Two big issues facing Midtown retail:
1. Lack of a concentrated presence. For walkable retail to be successful there cannot be stores like CB2 on an island by itself. Need a better concentration of discretionary consumer goods stores clustered closely together. By closely I don't mean a walkable distance from each other, I mean within visual distance / right next door to each other.

2. Plethora of other shopping destinations nearby that already have the stores that could be successful in a concentrated Midtown street retail district
- Lenox and Phipps
- Streets of Buckhead / Buckhead Atlanta / Shops at Buckhead Atlanta
- Westside Provisions
- Ponce City Market
- Atlantic Station

DJ said...

Wouldn't 12th & Midtown rather just keep getting current rent prices rather than nothing at all for 3/6/9 months....I don't get it.

Mind you after living in 77 12th building for a year before they jacked up rent by 23% I know how this company works..

Anonymous said...

Sad. Shopped there since they opened. Part of the problem with the store there is they had nowhere to store furniture to buy and take with you. Some of their smaller inexpensive furniture pieces would cost as much to deliver as the price!

Unknown said...

With such new residential construction, I would have tough it out another year or two.

Anonymous said...

Enough restaurants and bars in Midtown! we need more retail that cater to day-todya city living . Hate to see CB2 go!

Anonymous said...

Is it really possible that the rent is too high for a national retailer like CB2, when so much of the retail in that area is completely empty? It's not like the market is hot.

Anonymous said...

I was there today and there were architects doing work in there so to the person asking if 12th and Midtown would like to keep getting rent it seems likely that whatever is going to replace CB2 might already be close to signing a lease/moving in.

Anonymous said...

Sad to see the CB2. Nice concept with reasonable priced furniture for designed focused audience. Completely agree that one of the challenges is lack of retail density immediately next to the location. There's simply no other retailer worth visiting in that immediate vicinity, so I imagine it's hard for some folks to rationalize making that visit (vs. ATL Station, or any of the maills) unless they are focused on a specific item.

What's more sad though is that midtown's growth seems so disjointed. Rising rents and condo prices, with limited interesting dining options (like restaurants on Westside, PCM or Shops at Buckhead) and no where to shop due to empty store fronts. Wouldn't buy or rent here at the current prices, because it's simply doesn't make any sense until the market corrects itself.

Adriana said...

If it was strictly a matter of rent you would think they could cut a deal with Colony Square's new owners. I agree that there is not sufficient critical mass of retail in the so-called "Miracle Mile"...coukdmit be that every time a new building opens they offer "teaser rents" with hopes of jacking it up at the first renewal?

Unknown said...

I agree

Unknown said...

Midtown will never be great because there is no real foot traffic. And too many storefront vacancies. I always thought there should be a place like on Mich Ave in Chicago anchored by Nordstrom. It's 6 or 7 floors up, not wide, but has 40 or so stores. NE corner of 10th n Peachtree wold be perfect. We need a bigger structure with multiple stores. Not one here and there. Build that and others will definitely follow suit. I agree with poster regarding ACE. Nice addition. How about a baby Target???

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