Retailers are taking advantage of low rental rates to open physical stores on prime corridors in major cities. Home furnishings and apparel retailers, in particular, are snapping up high street space, according to JLL’s City Retail 2022 report. That’s after major lockdowns ended and sales skyrocketed. And experiential concepts are streaming into Magnificent Mile spaces abandoned by traditional retailers that struggled during the pandemic. Some examples from JLL’s report:

Apparel

• Direct-to-consumer activewear brand Vuori, which plans to open 100 stores in the U.S. over the next five years, opened a store on trendy Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach this summer.
• A Lululemon pop-up on Abbot Kinney turned-permanent, and the retailer expanded its streetfront location on Robson Street in Vancouver.
• Outdoor clothing retailer Arc’teryx opened three stores over the past year and a half: along West 4th Avenue in Vancouver, in SoHo in New York City and on Union Square in San Francisco, one of the only 2020 deals in that corridor.
• Icebreaker, an outdoor clothing retailer that specializes in merino wool, relocated to North Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
• Wilson Sporting Goods, which opened its first brick-and-mortar location on Chicago’s Gold Coast this past summer, opened its second store, in New York’s SoHo, in late January.

Home Furnishings

• Joybird, a direct-to-consumer home furnishings retailer, has opened several stores over the past year, including on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. It’s also expected to move into the former Williams Sonoma location in the Marina District in San Francisco.
• Avocado Green Mattress moved to M Street in Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown.
• The Sill, which began as an online plant delivery business and now has physical stores in five cities, opened on Newbury Street in Boston in the fourth quarter.

Experiential Brands on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile

• Museum of Ice Cream will anchor the redeveloped Tribune Tower.
• The Office Experience, based on popular NBC show The Office, opened at The Shops at North Bridge.
• The 25,000-square-foot, immersive Dr. Seuss Experience opened at the former Macy’s at Water Tower Place last October.