LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, never offers a discount to their most loyal customers, but the luxury giant got very lucky with a massive discount of its own. The parent company of over 75 brands, including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bvlgari, and Tiffany & Co., purchased a retail building in San Francisco’s Union Square. Louis Vuitton U.S.A., an entity tied to LVMH, spent $48 million last week to buy 220 Post Street, a six-story, 38,400-square-foot building, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. What is more interesting is not only the $1,250 per square foot price tag for the 1907-built building but the fact that it came with a $35 million discount.
The company tried to buy the building before for $83 million, but the building’s previous owners rejected the offer. In hindsight, the rejection turned out to be a blessing in disguise for LVMH. The property was foreclosed on in 2023 by lender Aareal Capital after the previous owners defaulted on a $56 million loan. This $48 million acquisition marks a steep discount, coming in roughly one-third lower than the building’s 2016 purchase price of $73 million. Now the building that once housed Saks Fifth Avenue’s men’s store, along with Eddie Bauer and Abercrombie & Fitch, could bear the LV name with a big broad multimillion-dollar grin.
Louis Vuitton currently occupies a leased storefront at 233 Geary Street, but this new acquisition could give LVMH a permanent foothold. It remains unclear whether the building will become Louis Vuitton’s permanent address or house another LVMH brand. If Louis Vuitton does relocate, it will join neighboring luxury names such as Patek Philippe, Rolex, Bulgari, and the established Tiffany & Co. boutique.
In addition, Bernard Arnault, nicknamed the wolf in cashmere, is no stranger to snapping up real estate gems. Luxury conglomerates are increasingly shifting from being tenants to becoming their own landlords. To secure a place of pride on Paris’s Champs-Élysées, LVMH reportedly spent approximately $850 million for 101 Champs-Élysées in mid-2023, only to top it months later by purchasing 150 Champs-Élysées for nearly $1.1 billion.
