Prada is going to open a massive Hong Kong store after it closed, four years ago, another massive one

The sea-facing K11 Musea in Kowloon

For Prada, faith in the Hong Kong market has returned. The group—publicly listed in the Fragrant Harbour—has just announced that they shall be opening a 8,000 sq ft store in Kowloon’s flashy K11 Musea mall. This is after they shuttered their larger 15,000 sq ft store in Causeway Bay (铜锣湾) in 2020, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which tourist arrivals from China dwindled dramatically. The Causeway Bay store was sited in a fairly unfamiliar (even to locals) Plaza 2000 on Russell Street (罗素街), just opposite Times Square. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP) Prada was then paying an eye-watering rental of HK$9 million (or about S$1.55 million) a month. After the Italian brand confirmed their pulling out of the space that they had occupied for seven years, the landlord, Early Light, announced that they were “offering to cut the rent at Plaza 2000 by 44% to HK$5 million”, as per SCMP.

Apart from servicing what was considered one of the highest retail rents in the world, Prada paid another price—the lack of store traffic. Despite the staggering lease, the brand’s store sat on the part of Russell Street that was not quite the star spot of Hong Kong’s top shopping districts; it was practically next to the Canal Road Flyover, under which was a busy bus-stop and pedestrian conduit, and was along a row of shops that included the beauty store Sasa. Diagonally opposite it was the entrance to the Times Square cineplex. To the unfamiliar, the Prada store was not quite on a swanky street where one imagines the brand would hold court. (Things have since changed, and if they had remained, they would have been able to say hello to Tiffany & Co, opened this year across the street). Moreover, they already had (and still have) a store in the nearby Sogo Department Store, another location that was not quite in keeping with Prada’s immaculately cultivated image.

The proposed new Prada store in the five-year-old K11 Musea—at Victoria Dockside on the southern tip of Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀)—would likely be best to strengthen their already impressive status as one of the best performing luxury groups of the present, despite the slowdown in the business, as announced by both LVMH and Kering, blaming weak spending in China. K11 Musea touts itself to be a “cultural-retail landmark”, with a 10-storey shopping centrepiece. The complex is bordered in the south by the esplanade Avenue of the Stars, which hosted, last November, the Louis Vuitton pre-fall 2024 show that captured the attention of the world. Prada in Hong Kong is six-store strong, and the new addition, expected to open early next year, will be a two-storey flagship that, no doubt, can better entice the many China tourists who throng the kitschy Avenue of the Stars.

File photo: Perrier Cheng for SOTD