Long Live the King
A year and a half ago, we did a story on the evolution of King Street. We only knew then that the recession would reconstruct King Street, but we didn’t know how. The likes of Halls, Shine and Butterfly were just new to the scene, and one of those has already closed its doors. We talked about the impact King Street Marketing Group was trying to make with events, and they’ve since added Second Sundays on King to the line up. We asked what you wanted to see King Street become.
Today, yet another metamorphosis is taking place. 2010 saw the fall of Saks, King Street’s flagship department store. And we will soon see it replaced by Generation Y’s Forever 21. Banana Republic consolidated and the cheap footwear find, Rack Room Shoes, waltzed in. Friends, or foes?
The recession still lingers like a pushy lady in line at the DMV breathing down our backs, but according to a few King Street merchants, things are looking up. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and they say King Street’s feeling good.
Shelby Davis, the manager at the new beauty oasis Cos Bar, thinks so. “Lower King Street is becoming the luxury end of the shopping district,” she claims. When Saks hit the road, the Cos Bar franchise saw an opportunity. “A lot of the brands Saks carried weren’t sold anywhere else on King, but we carry a lot of those cosmetics.” Cos Bar hired booted Saks staff and opened its shop to welcome the masses still mourning the departure of their favorite chain. Leggiadro, the fine ultra-luxe sportswear boutique, also saw a flurry of Saksless shoppers.
A handful of other new ventures have set up shop in the past year as well, including Robot Candy, Niche, Sugar Snap Pea, Roberto Coin, Kingsley Warren, Charleston Shoe Co., MyPhoneMD, Belmont Lounge, and workout wear favorite, Lululemon.
“Lululemon generally opens a showroom in a city to test out the shopping atmosphere before launching a full retail store,” says a rep from the King Street locale nestled above Rawle Murdy’s office. While the shop – filled with every manner of yoga and workout accessory – is hard to find, the clerks seem optimistic about biz.
Ultimately, old guard members of King Street, like Croghan’s Jewel Box, are the real testament to the street’s retail success. Croghan’s has been open for three generations and owner Mariana Hay says things on King Street are going well. “This Christmas was very good,” she says. “We had a lot of foot traffic.” Hay accepts the fact that change on the street is always inevitable. For instance, she does confess that the fact that King now has three yogurt shops within a block and a half of one another seems a bit excessive.
“I just hope in 2011 real estate agents think about what’s good for King Street before they rent out their properties,” says Hay. “Let them consider not just renting to the box stores, but making it affordable for the small business owner who is in it for the long term.”
To keep our beautiful King Street unique for years to come, we hope so too.
Once again, we open it up to you, readers. What do you want your King Street to be? Because even if it doesn’t seem like it, the power to shape King Street ultimately lies with the consumer. You.
Story by: Kinsey Gidick
10 Comments
Leave a Comment
Rack Room Shoes and Forever 21 are a blight on the quality of most of the other retail outlets on King.
An addition of a Nordstrom like store would be a huge asset to all the other upscale stores on King. Forever 21 and the Rack Room shoes belong at Tangier Mall. Other than those two misplacements and the three yoghurt shops, King Street has a great vitality. The latter based on those stores that have been in Charleston over time.
The charm of King Street is it’s localism. I love to shop knowing I’m supporting local artists … local friends … local everything. That IS Charleston, and that IS king street.
Forever 21? Not so much.
What I would like to see on King St is not related to the stores that are there but rather the life that is there. I don’t know how possible this is given the current funnel-people-north-and-south-on-narrow-sidewalks configuration but ideally I’d like to see: 1) More public gathering spaces – even tiny ones, where people can relax or talk or see and be seen. As is, if you stop to chat with a friend for a minute, you create a traffic jam 2) More resting places – benches, chairs, anything. 3) Better integration of non-car transportation 4) More outdoor dining – again this is difficult with the current configuration but it’s important to have because it makes an area have heart and soul. We always talk about keeping the center of the City vibrant and desirable, but it cannot be done with stores alone. There is only so much shopping one can do. As Jane Jacobs said “A lively city scene is lively largely by virtue of its enormous collection of small elements.” These are the small elements that are missing on King St. There is a way to integrate every single one of these elements (cars too!) even though it would be a bit of an upheaval, and require a new way of thinking and positive participation by the community. I love King St – I think it’s spectacularly beautiful. I just want more of an opportunity to admire and participate in its graces.
Rack Room is a total eyesore. Too bad the landlord couldn’t request some mood lighting.
Sorry…I’m from the Northwest and love Charleston, but the market for Nordstrom is not big enough. My small city had one, but they left about ten years ago for this reason. How about a Nordstrom rack!
This is a touchy subject… as we all can probably tell. What one must do first is look back at King Street 10 years ago and see how much progress has been made. Mary Norton’s flag ship store was on KING STREET. Hampden Clothing- a boutique that has been mentioned NUMEROUS times in the nation media (including VOGUE) is on KING STREET. This one road is one of the most talked about destinations in our city and we need to make sure to preserve it. Now, I know Rack Room Shoes might not seem to “belong” on King Street, but I rather have that than what the King Street Design District is beginning to look like. One night, take a stroll from The Belmont to Hall’s Chophouse and count the empty store fronts. It’s depressing. THERE IS GOOD NEWS! This is the time to get creative and re-build. The corporate retail stores will help keep King Street alive while we recover from what the past 3 years did to our businesses. Will Rack Room Shoes be in the Banana Republic building 5 years from now? I doubt it. I hope to see more locals using this time to build their brands and prepare to join the King Street merchants and bring more local flavor to this wonderful shopping district. I agree with Kristin too (and not just because we share a similar last name). More gathering areas would be a great addition. I spent the last 3 years living in Winter Park, Florida where we had our very own King Street called Park Avenue. Around 8am, you could drive down the avenue and find these little courtyards and via’s (similar to Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue) with locals reading the paper and sipping their coffee next to a beautiful fountain with “The Continental” playing over hidden speakers tucked behind perfectly manicured gardens. I would like more ‘CHARM’ to be brought to king street and the only way to make this happen is for everyone from Mayor Joe to Joe the realtor to work together. In my opinion, be glad there still is a King Street. Be flattered these giants like Forever 21 see how much potential our city has to offer. And GET INVOLVED with King Street associations so we can continue to build! Nothing will happen from people sitting back and complaining.
I wish landlords would be more selective about who they rent to. And it seems they’d rather have an empty space than work with a locally-owned tenant who is suffering temporarily. More outdoor dining is needed. Restaurants should be allowed to rent parking spaces in front and block them off with planters to use for outdoor dning.
Happy to see such interest in this local treasure. King Street merchants, both large & small, truly appreciate the customer loyalty and support from Charleston shoppers.
Also, one of the best ways to bring your favorite retailer to King Street is to ASK THEM to come! Email, Tweet, and Facebook your request for them to open a location on King Street! They are listening!
Charleston is frequently on the short list for many retailers (even Nordstrom’s!) when they are eyeing new locations. Personalized requests from consumers can actually sway those companies to come to Charleston more than you might think! So send a message, a tweet, or gather your friends to start a campaign to get them here! The article says it well: “the power to shape King Street ultimately lies with the consumer.”
Indeed, LONG LIVE THE KING!
The Apple Store is the flagship store for King Street. It was when Saks was open and still is now that they are closed.