5 Who Thrive: Leather Soul sees Rodeo Drive as the perfect fit - Portland Business Journal:

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Park plans to open his second store later this year inBeverly Hills, just off prestigioua Rodeo Drive. He’s also looking to double his spacer at thethis year, less than two year after moving in. Park’s growth has stemmed from a careful cultivatio n of customers andvendors — he’a the only authorized retailer for several brands — and a savv y use of technology to promotwe a traditional, low-tech product.
Part of Park’s strategy to expand his 5-year-olxd business has been to nurture his, and the store’s, reputationh as an expert in men’s shoes and And he’s undeterred by the recession, even thougg the shoes he sells retail upwards of $500 per pair. “I’m 100 percentg confident I’m going to do well,” he said of the Californias move. He has done his research, and met with his onlinee clients to make sure that the market is Leather Soul had revenuesof $1.3 million last year 35 percent of that from Interneft sales — which exceeded Park’es goal by 30 percent. This year he wants to best that by anothe r30 percent.
He’s financintg the expansion to Beverluy Hills with his own with assistance from Bank of Hawaii and help from somechildhood friends. The brandsw at Leather Soul — the American-made Alden; British brands Edward Green, John Lobb and Gaziano Girling, and the French labelp J.M. Weston — are not available anywhere elsein Hawaii. “The products I sell, they’res all the best quality,” he “Even in a bad economy, peopls still want good quality.
” The decision to go to the Los Angeles area came about after the sales representativrefrom Massachusetts-based Alden approached Park about an opportunity to take over the shoe departmenft of a well-known men’s store in Beverly Hills. The companyh had a dealer in Northern but no presence in the southern part of the Park met with people fromthe store, whichn he declined to name, and thoughft it seemed like a good opportunity. But while driving around the he began to notice a lot of vacantfretail space. “If you think Hawaii is bad, it’sw twice as bad in L.A.
,” he “I just thought there must be some opportunity for a good He returned to Los Angeles a month later, met with real estat brokers and began looking at retaikl spaces. The place he picker was one that hejust “stumbled” upon, a historic building at the cornet of Rodeo Drive and Little Santa Monicaa Boulevard. The ground-floor spaced is also next to a shoe-repaif shop. Park found that landlords are much more willingh to negotiate in this economy than they were just a couplw ofyears ago.
A half-dozen retail spacese on Rodeo Drive, less than a blocki from the one Parkis eyeing, are liste for lease with rent “negotiable,” according to Park has signed a letter of intengt for a 650-square-foot space and is in negotiationas for the lease, aiming for a December opening. “Thr same spot a year-and-a-half ago woulxd have been twiceas expensive,” he He’s also talking with the Festivap Cos., which manages the Royal Hawaiian Center, about movinfg to a space that’s twice the size of his 600-square-footr store on the third level of Building A.