LVMH buys Vuitton superstore building on Champs Elysées, amid Paris real estate buying spree

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jul 12, 2023

Luxury multi-billionaire Bernard Arnault has been doing a little shopping again – in real estate not in rags. LVMH, where he is chairman and CEO, has acquired a major building that contains the flagship Louis Vuitton superstore on Champs Élysées.

 
LVMH acquired the building, located at 101 Champs Elysées on the corner of Avenue George V,  from Gecina, a quoted real estate company. Real estate sources told FashionNetwork.com that Arnault paid about €770 million for the Art Déco structure. While one broker suggested the price might even have been €900 million.
 
The acquisition is the latest deal in a Paris real estate buying spree by both Arnault and his greatest rival François-Henri Pinault, CEO of luxury conglomerate Kering, who between them have spent an estimated €2.4 billion on property in the last nine months.

The building at 101 Champs Elysées comprises around 9.400 square meters – including 4,000 square meters of offices, 3,885 square meters of shops, and a further 1,200 square meters that include a nightclub and archive premises. Meaning the average selling price was over €80,000 per square meter. This seven-story complex, which was overhauled in 2006, is easily spotted thanks to a huge LV logo on its cupola.
 
Gecina, which has been managed by Beñat Ortega for the past year, has a reputation for regularly rotating its portfolio. Though the sale of this rare site and building is the equivalent of selling a family jewel. Built in the 1920s by architect Charles Henri Besnard, 101 Champs-Élysées was coincidently originally commissioned by Georges Vuitton, the only child of the founder of the luxury brand. Gecina confirmed it had sold the building in a release, though did not name the buyer.
 
According to CFNews Immo, a well-informed French real estate site, the building generates an annual rent of €16.5 million, suggesting a very thin annual return of just 2%! Average yields for central Paris properties are currently running at around 3.5% However, this most likely did not faze Arnault, who has a well-founded reputation for paying top dollar for unique brands and properties, and making them look like smart deals within a decade.

LVMH declined to comment on any of these real estate deals.

Across Paris, the real estate market is generally soft, due to slow growth in the French economy, high interest rates, widespread working from home and recent ecological regulations that require heavy investment in literally hundreds of office buildings to make them carbon neutral. One real estate investor reckons that the luxury retail prices are now on average 16% higher than pre-covid.
 
LVMH rival Kering has also been busy. As reported, in February it acquired four buildings at 12-14 rue Castiglione for a new Gucci superstore for some €300 million. And it acquired the former Canadian Embassy at 35 avenue Montaigne. The plan – build a mega Saint Laurent boutique right opposite the historic headquarters of the leading fashion brand in LVMH, Dior. Construction is already quite advanced.
 
Elsewhere, the LVMH conglomerate also snapped up a prime building at 7 rue de la Paix, the main artery of the luxury jewelry industry; and paid some €150 million for the building at 19 François 1er, located inside what is known as the Golden Triangle of Paris, located between avenue Montaigne, avenue des Champs-Elysées and avenue George V.
 
However, the fattest ticket item was 101 Champs-Élysées, known globally for hosting the biggest flagship of the world’s most profitable luxury brand. Even if the building also houses Raspoutine, a famed late night Parisian nightclub on rue de Bassano known for hosting a dissolute crowd.
 
As already reported by FashionNetwork.com, for its next move, LVMH is mulling installing Louis Vuitton – and a debut LV hotel - at 103 Champs Elysees, in the former stronghold of HSBC owned by the government of Qatar. This building, which is currently covered in Dior logos, was initially planned to be a Dior superstore.
 
While Dior, LVMH’s most important haute couture house, may instead open a major new superstore at 101 Champs-Élysées, after a complete renovation of the commercial shell.