Bernard Arnault

It’s not every year that the king of luxury retail makes a nine-figure bet on Beverly Hills, but it’s starting to feel like it. 

Bernard Arnault, one of the richest people on Earth and the luxury titan behind LVMH, has clearly turned his focus to Rodeo Drive, and is reshaping and elevating the West Coast’s most coveted shopping district.

The $500 billion French conglomerate — which owns Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy and other top-tier brands — filed plans this year for a new three-story, 30,000-square-foot Tiffany flagship on Rodeo, replacing the defunct Luxe Hotel that LVMH acquired for $200 million in 2021. The proposal comes just two years after LVMH completed a meticulous renovation of Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue flagship in New York, signaling that the revitalization of iconic physical retail is now a global priority for Arnault’s firm.

Tiffany has other plans along the high street. He’s leading the charge behind a sprawling new Louis Vuitton campus across two Rodeo Drive buildings — a Frank Gehry-designed, 100,000-square-foot property that will feature a rooftop garden, a restaurant, a café and exhibition space. The pivot from a previously proposed luxury hotel at the same site, which was rejected by voters in a controversial 2023 referendum, underscores LVMH’s conviction.

The company has already spent almost $1 billion on Rodeo Drive real estate over the past decade, and Arnault’s team is also behind openings along the drag for new Dior and Givenchy flagships. In an era of online shopping and general uncertainty for retail, Arnault has become an aggressive champion for brick-and-mortar luxury.