Housing and Real Estate I

[003] Luxury Brand Flagship Store as an Indicator of Gentrification

Ha Kyeong Lee, Youngchul Kim

キーワード：Sense of Place, Gentrification, Flagship Store, Luxury Brand

The luxury brand flagship store is located in the center of a large city, in a commercial district with high consumption power, or in a commercial district with a luxury sense of place (Arrigo, 2015). However, since luxury brands have actively jumped into online sales in recent years, the characteristics and location of boutiques have changed. Luxury brands are using offline boutiques, especially flagship stores, as a method for delivering and experiencing a kind of brand's heritage and identity to customers (Moore & Birtwistle, 2004; Moore, Doherty, & Doyle, 2010; Nobbs, Moore, & Sheridan, 2012). In addition, the flagship store of luxury brands has begun to be located in different commercial districts, including gentrification commercial districts. Since new luxury brand’s flagship stores are located in gentrification commercial districts in Seoul, this study targeted Hannam-dong and Seongsu-dong, Seoul, where the location of new luxury brand flagship stores recently became prominent. Changes in the characteristics of Hannam-dong and Seongsu-dong were derived through time series analysis of industries, land prices, and building renovation before and after new luxury brands started their flagship store. We analyzed the correlation between the two gentrification commercial districts to demonstrate how the sense of place affected the change in location of luxury brand flagship stores. According to the results, we confirm the possibility that the boutique position of luxury brands is an indicator of the deepening gentrification phenomenon and the resulting change in the sense of place. This study would be useful to analyze the change in the characteristics of the commercial district according to the intensification of gentrification in other cities.