Sigel’s (no relation) will hold a grand opening for Sigel’s Elite, a high-end liquor, wine and gourmet store at the end of the month. The location? Cole and Fitzhugh on the other side of Central, in the old City Homes building. Why does this matter to those of us over here? Because Sigel’s didn’t open it on this side of Central.
We have had a lot of chat back and forth this summer about retailers and what they look for and why they do what they do. The new Sigel’s is an excellent example of the retailer thinking process. At first glance, Cole and Fitzhugh doesn’t seem like much of a spot for an upscale liquor store. There is, after all, a school across the street, and access isn’t especially easy.
But draw a line on map, starting at the high-end wine store called Cork in the West Village. The line will more or less go through Sigel’s Elite, then through Crush (formerly Best Cellars) at Knox-Henderson — all within a couple of miles of each other. Doesn’t that seem like overkill?
To you and I, maybe, but a retailer sees those Park Cities demographics and starts to act like Homer Simpson around a donut. One store or three stores, all they see are six-figure household incomes. That there would be less competition on this side of Central with less expensive rents (like the mostly empty retail space at CityVille on lower Greenville) and demographics that are still impressive is irrelevant. One other point: Sigel’s is a local company, and thinks this way. So how much less willing to open that kind of store on this side of Central would an out-of-town company be?
