Farfetch to Open West Coast Headquarters at The Bloc
NEW HOME: Farfetch is expected to move to the downtown Los Angeles mixed-use project The Bloc, where it intends to set up a West Coast headquarters in 2018.
The London-based firm inked a deal for 25,000 square feet of office space on the 30th floor of the property’s office tower, joining Nordstrom’s flash-deals site HauteLook as the two fashion companies in the building.
“Farfetch has called downtown L.A. home for its U.S. operations since we entered the market eight years ago, and we are proud to continue to invest in the community with our new office at The Bloc as we look to the future growth of our business,” said Farfetch North America president Jeffery Fowler. “At its core, Farfetch is a technology and innovation partner to the luxury fashion industry, and downtown L.A. has provided us with the right mix of talent, creativity and infrastructure to become one of the most dynamic companies in our industry and to continue to revolutionize the way that consumers shop for luxury fashion.”
The office lease comes on the heels of news earlier this month that Farfetch nabbed a $397 million investment from JD.com that’s expected to expand its footprint in China. Before that was Farfetch’s purchase of the Style.com intellectual property and customer data from Condé Nast.
For The Bloc project in downtown L.A., it’s a significant win and follows a more recent announcement that Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is expected to join the project’s retail roster next year, helping build new momentum around the project since falling quiet after the tear-down of the Macy’s building rooftop in 2015.
Ratkovich Co., along with National Real Estate Advisors and Blue Vista Capital Management, acquired the 1.8 million-square-foot property in 2013 with about $180 million in renovations being poured into revitalizing the project. The Bloc also includes the Sheraton Grand Los Angeles hotel as well as the 722,000-square-foot office tower Farfetch is set to move into. The retail component is anchored by a 250,000-square-foot Macy’s flagship, a remnant from when the space was still an indoor mall called Macy’s Plaza.
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