Dover Street Market Beijing Relocates to Forbidden City-adjacent Luxury Mall
SHANGHAI — After 12 years, Dover Street Market Beijing officially closed its Taikoo Li Sanlitun location on Friday.
According to the store’s official WeChat account, Dover Street Market Beijing will be relocating to WF Central, a luxury shopping mall complex close to the Forbidden City. The new store is set to open in November.
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In partnership with Hong Kong retailer I.T, Dover Street Market Beijing opened in 2010 under the name I.T Beijing Market. As Dover Street Market’s only retail outpost in China, the all-white, four-story glass building became a landmark presence in the Taikoo Li Sanlitun North District.
The store’s brand selection and visual identity stayed in line with the Dover Street Market franchise. The only difference was the Beijing store was directly linked to a Bape store, an I.T flagship brand, on its ground floor.
In 2018, the store changed its name to Dover Street Market Beijing. The name switch was aimed at “making Beijing a part of the DSM community,” and it was not only a business decision, Adrian Joffe, chief executive officer of Dover Street Market, told local media at the time.
According to an I.T spokesperson, the WF Central Dover Street Market Beijing will be slightly bigger than the Taikoo Li Sanlitun one, which spans over 23,680 square feet.
Opened in 2018, WF Central is the first luxury shopping mall in the touristy Wangfujing area. It is home to luxury brands such as Dior, Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent. It also houses the first Serpentine Pavilion overseas.
Taikoo Li Sanlitun declined to reveal the next tenant for the building. According to Xiaohongshu, the popular social commerce platform, Louis Vuitton is set to take over the location and open a Louis Vuitton Maison, the equivalent of a major flagship.
Louis Vuitton has three Maison stores in China, located at Beijing’s China World Mall, Shanghai’s Plaza 66 and Chengdu’s Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li.
