Ivanka Trump brand will open New York City store in second stab at retail.
Ivanka Trump is trying her hand at brick-and-mortar retail—again.
The first daughter’s brand will open a store in Trump Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, according to signage in the building. The location is slated to debut later this year, giving the tourists who throng to the site a chance to buy Ivanka Trump merchandise.
It’s unclear what products will be sold at the store or when exactly it will open: A sign promised a fall 2017 debut, but representatives for the brand declined to give specifics.
The shop would represent Ivanka Trump’s second foray into branded stores. She previously opened a fine jewelry boutique on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2007, before moving to the SoHo neighborhood in 2011. That location shut down in 2015, according to the New York Times. In 2013, the brand opened a luxury store in a high-end mall in downtown Beijing, but that location was shuttered as well.
The business also has rejiggered its product offerings over the years. The brand discontinued its entire fine jewelry line this year, shifting instead to more affordable accessories.
In the marble and gold lobby of Trump Tower, a floral design in Ivanka Trump’s signature pink heralded the new store. On Thursday afternoon, tourists were posing for photos in front of the sign.
Ivanka Trump, who serves as a White House adviser, has been walking the line between policy and business. Ivanka Trump Marks, which handles her trademarks, is continuing to push into unexplored commercial spaces bearing her name—from intimate apparel to lounge wear and athletic clothing. And the Trump Organization’s hotels in Washington and Vancouver each operate a trademarked Spa by Ivanka Trump.
Ivanka Trump has stepped away from day-to-day management of her brand and transferred assets to a trust. But she hasn’t divested from her companies.
It’s a difficult time to be opening retail stores, with many companies struggling with declining foot traffic and waning customer loyalty. Still, opening dedicated storefronts remains a popular approach for brands, letting them bypass department stores and other outlets. an experiment at that, and maybe if they were all implemented, cars would stop using the residential streets. Who knows? One business owner told me she would change the timing of the stoplights and eliminate the stop sign at Bank and Golden streets, to keep traffic moving faster.
Maybe that would help eliminate the backups. But it also seems to me that speeding up a single lane of traffic through the downtown is not such a good idea, either, for business or safety.
If the Bank Street business owners remain committed to this change, then hats off to the city for accommodating them. It should be their decision. I hope they’re right. It makes me wonder what other things I never thought of as a problem, like congestion on one of the city’s main commercial thoroughfares, the city will tackle next.