Crate & Barrel CEO has departed, but company declines to say why
Crate & Barrel’s CEO, who is at the center of a lawsuit from rival Restoration Hardware, is out after less than two years at the retailer.
The company, headquartered in suburban Chicago, confirmed Friday that Doug Diemoz, who was recruited from Restoration Hardware to head Crate & Barrel in 2015, left earlier this week. A company spokeswoman declined to say why.
“I can confirm that Mr. Diemoz left the company,” spokeswoman Vicky Lang said.
An internal memo obtained by the Chicago Tribune that was sent to staffers by Neela Montgomery, an executive board member at Crate & Barrel’s parent company, the Otto Group, said that she would assume “most of Doug’s current responsibilities working closely with Steve ‘Woody’ Woodward, President and Chief Merchant, and Mike Relich, Chief Operating Officer, and the rest of the executive leadership team.”
Montgomery added that the company had seen a “strong turnaround” in the past two years and “I firmly believe that the best is yet to come.”
Diemoz filled the void at Crate & Barrel after the 2015 resignation of Sascha Bopp, who had been CEO since 2012. Adrian Mitchell, Crate & Barrel’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, served as interim CEO during the search for Bopp’s replacement.
A 20-year retail veteran, Diemoz joined Restoration Hardware in March 2014. He was responsible for developing and leading the company’s global expansion efforts and emerging businesses. Previously, he was with Mexx, Williams-Sonoma and Gap.
In 2012, Restoration Hardware started developing a concept to include food and beverage services at certain “gallery” locations, according to a lawsuit the company filed earlier this year in California Superior Court against Diemoz and Crate & Barrel. The first location opened in Chicago in October 2015 after the company turned a rundown circa-1914 building into a six-floor space that melded a gallery, retail shop, coffee and pastry shop, wine bar, and a garden courtyard café.
Spokeswoman Lang added that Diemoz’s departure has nothing to do with the suit, which aims to prevent Crate & Barrel from opening a food and beverage operation in any of its stores for a year.
The lawsuit also alleges that Crate & Barrel sought to hire Diemoz for his knowhow to launch a similar program for the company. The company also set its sights on another top Restoration Hardware executive, Kimberly Ahlheim, to gain access to information developed after Diemoz left, the suit alleges.
Crate & Barrel “effectively sought to steal a page from the successful RH playbook,” using inside information such as how to sell coffee and wine in the same store in which customers buy stemware and settees, the suit alleges. Restoration Hardware has asked the court to order Diemoz and Ahlheim to erase all proprietary information they have and prevent Ahlheim from serving in a position where her proprietary information would be valuable for a year. The lawsuit is still pending.
Crate & Barrel founders Gordon Segal and his wife, Carole, launched the store in a Chicago neighborhood in 1962. Now its family of brands, including CB2 and children furniture store The Land of Nod, are owned by Hamburg, Germany-based Otto Group. this fall, with the timeline for the buildings to be determined by market demand, said Stephen Swan, a member of Riverside Resources’ development team.
The 18.5 acres were part of Advanced Micro Devices’ 46-acre office campus that Riverside Resources bought from AMD in 2013.
Nearby, Riverside Resources in late March bought a former computer-chip fab from Cypress Semiconductor at 5202 E. Ben White. It was AMD’s original Austin fab and later was occupied by AMD spinoff Spansion, which Cypress acquired. Riverside Resources declined to say what it paid for the property.
“Our ultimate goal is for 5900 and 5202 E. Ben White is to jointly become a large, multitenant office park, or corporate campus,” Swan said. “As the new buildings are built, we will expand the trail system, making major upgrades to what currently exists, and expand it with future trails throughout the land at the 5900 property, ultimately connecting the two tracts by a pedestrian bridge. The trail system will run more than two miles, and be a critical component in tying everything together.”
Riverside Resources plans a renovation of the 330,000-square-foot fab, with work expected to begin within the next month, Swan said. Most recently, the building was leased by various movie studios during local filming, Swan said.
The overhaul will be similar to the remake Riverside Resources did to AMD’s two-story, 220,000-squarefoot office building, which included adding a new entry and lobby, updating interior finishes, remodeling restrooms and adding new landscaping and a courtyard.
Riverside Resources sold the office building, which Centene Corp. now leases, to Broadstone Net Lease in December.
Swan said Riverside Resources sees high growth potential in Southeast Austin.
“First, it has great proximity to both the airport and the rest of Austin, particularly downtown. Secondly, prices are some of the most reasonable in Austin, which translates to a compelling financial case for tenants. Third, since it’s where the city likes seeing development, we’re able to deliver high-quality product relatively quickly,” Swan said.
When Riverside Resources bought the 5900 E. Ben White property, it renamed it 5900 Corporate Campus, a name that will remain.
Swan said there has been “strong interest” from prospective tenants in both the former Cypress building and the planned new buildings, although no agreements have been signed as yet.
The planned three-building complex will have an outdoor courtyard with seating, event spaces and places for food trucks to park.
Along with the former AMD office building, Broadstone bought a 500-space parking lot on 5.7 acres adjoining 5900 East Ben White from Riverside Resources. That lot will continue to be used for parking by Centene. Riverside Resources plans to improve the pedestrian bridge on that site, saying it will be a “vital connection” between the two E. Ben White properties.
Starting in the 1980s, AMD invested heavily in the natural features and outdoor amenities on the property, making it a mature campus today that has ample green space and large trees, Swan said. The former AMD office building once housed AMD’s corporate data center and computer-chip testing lab, along with executive offices and board rooms.
Riverside Resources said it will make updates to the existing outdoor seating, trail system, wet pond, basketball courts and sand volleyball court, while preserving the natural setting.
Once the 77-acre campus is fully built out it will have a total project cost of more than $135 million, Swan said.
In Austin, Riverside Resources has a 39-story luxury condo tower under construction at West Fifth Street and West Avenue downtown. The firm also developed and later sold the Whitley, a 16-story apartment tower downtown, and also developed Capital Ridge, an office building that Apple Inc. leases near Loop 360 and Bee Cave Road. That project also includes a Hotel Granduca Austin, which was developed in a joint partnership with Riverside Resources.