Bodega to be first retail tenant in DTLA's Row

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Jul 28, 2016

The Row DTLA, downtown LA's newest 30-acre redevelopment project, has announced its first retail fashion tenant to be Boston-based Bodega.

Bodega takes its name from its somewhat misleading exterior looking like a bodega or neighborhood convenience store, however inside consumers can find premium product like $120 Nike Rosche One's and reflective Stone Island jackets for $850.

Speaking of their concept, co-founder Jay Gordon said, “We’d take the Chinatown bus in New York and go to these stores in these bad neighborhoods. There was this cool sense of discovery."

The Row DTLA is owned and being developed by the Runyon Group, the same firm developing Culver City's Platform space.

This is Bodega's first stab at the Los Angeles market. Their space will be 8,000 square feet, however their specific location remains undisclosed and is only rumored to be by Smorgasburg, the weekly food and design market popping up at the Row DTLA.

“It’s not that we don’t play well with others, but we’re sort of used to being by ourselves,” Gordon said.

Gordon finished, “We’ll be hidden in the space. So I think a lot of people won’t see it, won’t get to it [and] won’t know it’s there. That’s what we want. The people that really seek us out, will do it. … It’s not for everybody. It’s like anti-retail 101.”

Bodega currently is the first retail fashion tenant that has signed on for a store at Row DTLA. The opening is slated for June 2017 with details still developing.