NEW YORK — Topshop finally has a date.
After months of delays due to construction and permit problems, the British fast-fashion retailer owned by Sir Philip Green will unveil its first U.S. store here on April 2, WWD has learned. The 40,000-square-foot store is located at 478 Broadway and will carry all the Topshop collections for women, as well as the Topman label for men.
Green will unveil details of the store and its launch at a press conference at the Gramercy Park Hotel Roof Club and Garden on Monday. There also will be a party for Topman hosted by Amy Sacco at Bungalow 8 on Sunday night.
The Manhattan flagship originally was scheduled to open last fall, but Green put the brakes on that plan in September during a visit to the site. Construction was hit by delays in getting permits from the city, tweaks to the original design and building hurdles, such as the time it took to order and receive the escalators. “It has nothing to do with the economy,” Green said at the time. “This is totally to do with the complexity of this project.
“This has been a logistical nightmare,” he added. “America is a new territory for us and we have to get it exactly right. This store can’t be a nine out of 10 when it opens; it has to be a 10 out of 10.”
At that time Green planned to open in mid-March, but the date has slipped slightly since then. But Green continues to expand Topshop aggressively elsewhere in the world, opening a trial store in Japan as well as additional units in the U.K.