The Brooklyn-based retailer opened this week. Photos by Mike Platania.
After an eight-year hiatus, a Brooklyn-based retailer has re-entered the Richmond market.
West Elm, a furniture and home goods shop that’s a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, the publicly traded kitchenware company, opened Thursday at 3117 W. Cary St. in the former W. Hirsch Oriental Rugs building in Carytown. It currently has over 85 stores nationwide.
The chain snatched up a lease on the 17,000-square-foot space from the Hirsch family, which owns the building and closed its shop in the spring. It gives West Elm its first store in the region since its run at Short Pump Town Center from 2004 to 2010.
West Elm spokesman Dru Ortega said the company was eager to get back into the Richmond market.
West Elm carries goods for the living room, bedroom, kitchen and outdoors.
“We were young at the time,” Ortega said regarding West Elm’s local first store, noting that West Elm was founded in 2002. “We’ve evolved … and Carytown is more attuned to what we are today.”
In 2013, West Elm began carrying products from local artists and designers at its locations. The Carytown spot is stocking goods from 13 Virginia-based vendors, including local printmaker The Wild Wander, knitwear company The Minted Evergreen, and illustrator and textile company Morris + Norris. Ortega said the lineup of local vendors will be rotating.
West Elm is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The Carytown store has a staff of 25.
The new shop is bookended by Weezie’s Kitchen and new-to-market sweets shop Kilwin’s, which opened in August.
The Brooklyn-based retailer opened this week. Photos by Mike Platania.
After an eight-year hiatus, a Brooklyn-based retailer has re-entered the Richmond market.
West Elm, a furniture and home goods shop that’s a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, the publicly traded kitchenware company, opened Thursday at 3117 W. Cary St. in the former W. Hirsch Oriental Rugs building in Carytown. It currently has over 85 stores nationwide.
The chain snatched up a lease on the 17,000-square-foot space from the Hirsch family, which owns the building and closed its shop in the spring. It gives West Elm its first store in the region since its run at Short Pump Town Center from 2004 to 2010.
West Elm spokesman Dru Ortega said the company was eager to get back into the Richmond market.
West Elm carries goods for the living room, bedroom, kitchen and outdoors.
“We were young at the time,” Ortega said regarding West Elm’s local first store, noting that West Elm was founded in 2002. “We’ve evolved … and Carytown is more attuned to what we are today.”
In 2013, West Elm began carrying products from local artists and designers at its locations. The Carytown spot is stocking goods from 13 Virginia-based vendors, including local printmaker The Wild Wander, knitwear company The Minted Evergreen, and illustrator and textile company Morris + Norris. Ortega said the lineup of local vendors will be rotating.
West Elm is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The Carytown store has a staff of 25.
The new shop is bookended by Weezie’s Kitchen and new-to-market sweets shop Kilwin’s, which opened in August.
Carytown has traditionally been a local “mom and pop” shopping district with a few franchise operations sprinkled in. While I wish the best to West Elm I hope this doesn’t start a trend toward national tenants.