Get aside, show business: fashion takes on West End

Show business is giving way to international retailers, who are fighting to get the best locations at the trendier than ever London´s West End. Rents on Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street, central London's premier retail locations,

rose as much as 20 percent last year, Colliers International estimates.

Up to know, they are the US- based Kate Spade and Forever 21 Inc. the ones heading the competition to afford themselves with prime space in London's West End, pushing rents to new highs as landlords elsewhere in the U.K. struggle with mounting vacancies.

But they are not mavericks, as Apple Inc., Prada's Miu Miu, Barcelona-based Desigual, Limited Brands Inc.'s Victoria's Secret, Forever 21, Liz Claiborne Inc.'s Kate Spade, VF Corp.'s 7 For All Mankind, Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.'s Rugby, Missoni and German outdoor-clothing maker Jack Wolfskin account to other retailers establishing or strengthening their London presence in the past 12 months.

This uprising in prices compares with gains of up to 17 percent on Avenue des Champs- Elysees in Paris, Hong Kong's Russell Street and Fifth Avenue in New York, the other three members
of the world's "retail super league," the broker said.

Premium zone rents on Bond Street, the U.K.'s most expensive shopping street, will eventually exceed 1,000 pounds a square foot, said Cushman & Wakefield's Mace. Zoning retail space is an industry measure derived from actual rents and used to compare leasing costs for different stores. “Zone A rent is the cost calculated for the most valuable storefront space” they further explain. The highest zone A rent on the street is the 965 pounds that jeweler Piaget, a unit of Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, agreed to pay in December 2009 for 169 Old Bond Street.

Rather than immediately opening in cities across the country, luxury and international retailers usually expand in Britain with one or more stores in London and outlets in a few dominant regional malls, backed up by their websites, according to Mark Burlton, the London-based head of Cushman's cross-border retail advisory arm for Europe and Asia.

According to the latest marker research by CB Richard Ellis Group, London has the highest proportion of international retailers of any city in the world because it serves as a base for expanding in Europe. Catering on time for next year´s Olympics is also a rush factor: “Companies are jostling for outlets to prepare for an eventual recovery of the continent's economies and the influx next year of hundreds of thousands of visitors for the Summer Olympic Games”, property brokers said.

"I have a number of clients saying they have to have a shop open in time for the Olympics, so it's focusing people's minds," said Peter Mace to Bloomberg, a partner in charge of London retail leasing at broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. "Any deal done now on a new lease is at a record, for prime and secondary locations. I have never known such limited supply."

Retail sales in London topped all global cities last year at 64.2 billion pounds ($104 billion) as the weak pound supported tourism, Newark, England-based Centre for Retail Research estimates. Sales on the West End's three main shopping strips rose 7.3 percent in 2010 compared with the U.K. average of 0.8 percent, data compiled by destination visitor monitor Springboard show.