Will the newly signed Equinox deal be the catalyst that elevates Fulton Market to a broader based retail area?

Over the last 10 years, Fulton Market has garnered national recognition as Chicago’s most interesting trade area. While known for its fantastic restaurants and wonderfully unique hotel experiences, Fulton Marked has been slow to establish a reputation as a great place to shop. Data gathered by Stone Real Estate Corp. explains why this perception exists. Of the 1.4M SF of ground level retail inventory existing in the market, 529,000 SF of it is comprised of Food & Beverage.

These restaurants are predominantly operated by such Chicago culinary powerhouses as Alinea Group, One Off Hospitality, Hogsalt, DineAmic, Day Off Hospitality Group, and now Gibson’s Restaurant Group. The dominating presence of the restaurants, however, has hindered the development of an emerging apparel co-tenancy in the neighborhood. To be clear, solid apparel retail names such as Lululemon, Madewell, Warby Parker, Uncommon James, Blue Mercury, Mejuri and Brooklinen have pioneered a burgeoning soft goods and apparel concentration that is slowly growing. However, other retailers have not followed suit.

Equinox will anchor the next evolution of the market; one that will embrace wellness of body and spirit as only a sophisticated operator like Equinox can provide. Then, Fulton Market will also be considered a place to work out, in addition to living, working, and dining there. Apparel retailers are attracted to the Equinox co-tenancy because their analytics show that the shopping behavior of the Equinox high income customer crosses over to some of the existing Fulton Market retailers. Many potential apparel retailers like the feel of the neighborhood, but are not quite sure that their targeted customers frequent Fulton Market to shop. With Equinox committed to the neighborhood, those retailers will now have the certainty that their targeted customers are in Fulton Market because of the broadening of the retail mix that Equinox provides.