Dolce & Gabbana's double vision - opens second flagship

It didn't take long for retail observers to question whether Dolce & Gabbana's just-announced second flagship in Manhattan, at 155 Mercer St. in SoHo, may be too much of an extremely wonderful thing. The company already has a terrific store at 717 Fifth Ave., but this new location, all 15,000 s/f of it, will be an amazing statement for the brand. But will it cannibalize sales? Probably not. As I've been noting in various reports, uptown and downtown have a number of similar names: pioneering Prada, Burberry, Kate Spade, Chanel and more. What they understand is that these neighborhoods have similar, but not the same shoppers. Fifth and Madison may attract more affluent visitors, and local residents, while also well-to-do SoHo shoppers tend also to remain in their own neighborhood to shop. Having locations in both areas makes sense in our densely populated city. And I can't wait to see what D&G do with their converted firehouse! Another case in point in the uptown/downtown expansion: H. Stern has opened a temporary store at 104 Greene St. as its Fifth Ave. flagship is closed for renovation. The new space will be open through July. While management has been quoted as saying they don't expect to do anywhere near their normal business, I'm hoping they'll be pleasantly surprised. Jeweler Aaron Basha will relocate to 673 Madison Ave. later this year. Margaret O'Leary's second store in the city is at 321 Bleecker St. The city will get its first Nike clearance store next month at the Sky View Center in Flushing. It's a very CREW spring on the calendar. I'm honored to be asked by CREW N.J. to participate on their panel discussing "Risk and Rewards: Successful Women in Commercial Real Estate," to be held Thursday, April 16th from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Judith Nitsch, 2014 CREW national president and president of Nitsch Engineering, will moderate, and Kimberly Brennan, COO of Colliers International and Meryl Gonchar, partner/co-chair of the development and land use department of Greenbaum, Rowe Smith & Davis will join us for what I know will be an informative and entertaining talk. Check with http://www.crewnj.org/home.aspx for more info. Planning is well under way for all of us attending the ICSC's annual RECon meeting in Las Vegas in May - and there's even more exciting news for those of us who are members and friends of CREW's Network as well. What was going to be a CREW luncheon at the conference instead will be a Blockbuster Session: CEO Retail Power Panel, to be held Monday, May 18th from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Westgate Hotel (the once-upon-a-time Las Vegas Hilton). And what a power panel it will be! Kristin Mueller, executive VP and COO of JLL will moderate, joined by my dear friend Collete English Dixon, principal of transactions for Prudential Real Estate Investors (and a past CREW president); Lyn Kirby, chairman and CEO of Beauty Brands; and Jodie McLean, president and chief investment officer of EDENS. I can't wait to spend 90 minutes with these fascinating women! For more info and to register for this all-important conference, visit www.icsc.org. Happy Shopping! Faith Hope Consolo is the chairman of the retail group at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, New York, N.Y.