by Despite a slow pandemic recovery and office inventory challenges, which saw the closure of the iconic Ace Hotel in December, Downtown LA remains a destination for new upscale retail developments.
Now open in the Arts District, Signal has been more than three years in the making and includes outposts of hip food, beauty and home goods retailer, Flamingo Estates, SoCal interior design darling Lawson-Fenning, and clothing boutique men’s M5 Studio, featuring Aspesi stock. , Engineering Apparel and Sunspel, among other brands.
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It started when serial retailer Raan Parton and developer Paolo Carini saw an old industrial building on Traction Avenue and saw that it could become a neighborhood meeting place for events, food and fashion. He sat among the 20 soon enoughth Turn-of-the-century warehouses and industrial buildings are now headquarters for creative companies including Fear of God, Warner Music Group and Re/Done. Nearby, Spotify occupies 155,000 square feet of space filled with 18 audio studios.
The building at 821 Traction Avenue, built in 1910, originally covered 25,000 square feet. Its latest incarnation was a suite of 15 creative office workspaces. “I was very inspired when I saw this building because it had very good bones and the right amount of land to create what you see today,” Carini said.
The first thing you notice when you enter Signal’s large yard is an Australian bottle tree with a bulbous trunk and tall green branches.
It stands like a piece of sculpture designed by nature to overshadow everything it towers over. And it comes with a bit of history. Parton and Carini were determined to have an Australian bottle tree in the middle of their yard. Searching far and wide, they found about 10 bottle trees in a San Diego nursery. But they were already promised to another buyer. So, the search continued.
“Finally we had to find a tree [via a plant collector] from a private home south of San Diego near the Mexican border,” said Carini, who grew up in Italy and worked as a lawyer before joining Est4te Four Capital and moving to the United States. “That tree is kind of our mascot,” Parton said.
The Signal partners were determined to preserve the structure of the building but add to it to create 40,000 square feet over two floors. The second floor is occupied by Greycroft Partners, a New York venture capital firm. His investments include The RealReal, Goop, Bumble, Anine Bing and Venmo. Greycroft’s lease for just over 19,000 square feet includes a large conference room, offices and shared co-working space for its portfolio companies.
Downstairs, a curated storefront and cafe called Concierge is coming soon to the remodeled building with a Mediterranean feel. Paperwork Newsstand will begin on February 20. One of the flagship stores on the main floor is Alchemy Works, part of the small chain that Parton and his wife, Lindsay, launched in 2013. The store displays a range of clothing, accessories, home goods and jewelry. Alchemy Works has three other California locations in Newport Beach, Napa and the seaside Playa Vista neighborhood in Los Angeles, and a fourth store in Denver.
Adjacent to Alchemy Works is Flamingo Estate, Richard Christiansen’s lifestyle brand that sells candles, soaps, honey and other food items, many of which are sourced from the nearby Flamingo Estate grounds. Nearby is M5 Studio, a concept store focusing on fast-luxury clothing with many Japanese and Italian labels.
Towards the front is Lawson-Fenning, a maker and conservator of vintage and locally made furniture. Its arched windows overlook the courtyard and a tall Australian bottle tree. Nearby is Period Correct, a destination for all things automotive nostalgia with books, accessories, T-shirts, fleece, headwear and outerwear.
Departamento, the LA men’s concept store led by Andrew Dryden, former buyer for Selfridges, and Joseph Quinones, serving Drake, Frank Ocean and other high fashion rollers, moved from its nearby Santa Fe Avenue location to Signal on March 1. Don’t Enter, the art and design-focused boutique curated by French owners Emmanuel Renoird and Nicolas Libert, will also relocate to the space, opening March 1.
The Klein Agency, founded by Jon and Masa Kleinhample, whose design studio is adjacent to Signal, designed its white stucco exterior, curved windows and artistic landscaping.
The complex was originally called Free Market, after the two Free Markets that Parton and Carini first established in 2019 with a large retail store-within-a-store concept launched in Downtown Denver’s Dairy Block. Three years ago, a second Free Market opened as part of a larger commercial redevelopment called Runway, which includes Whole Foods, a CVS pharmacy and retail stores in Playa Vista.
But Parton and Carini felt that the Free Market formula worked better alongside a larger commercial center. “We wanted to be branded as a stand-alone destination that doesn’t have to rely on any existing co-tenants,” Parton explained.
Carini said they wanted the project to be ultra-conservative with hand-picked tenants to live and thrive together. “When we develop something, we are very focused on the asset. So, we started with the design, keeping in mind the last tenants,” he explained.
The result is a welcoming structure not far from the renowned Hauser & Wirth art gallery and across the street from the Arts District Brewing Co. “I think we came up with our own voice,” Carini said. “We wanted to create a little oasis.”
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