Celebrity home brand to open first Austin store at Domain Northside

Jan Buchholz | Senior Staff Writer
Source: Austin Business Journal

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, the home furnishings and lifestyle brand, is opening at the Domain Northside, the new retail development created by Endeavor Real Estate Group.

Gold met with me at Rock Rose, the specially branded avenue within Northside, to talk about why Austin surfaced as a must-be location. After all, this is a brand famous in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, Miami and Mexico City. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams designs have been lauded by the rich and famous — from Eva Longoria to Mick Jagger.

Now Austin is emerging with retail clout — in step with its accolades as a technology and creative capital that is growing in wealth.

“I look at things a couple of years in advance… and we have stores in the largest metro areas,” Gold said. “We research where our clientele lives.”

Austin, he said, hits all the checkpoints with high-paying jobs, an educated workforce and a growing demand for quality furnishings and decor. A touch of pizzazz is even better. Click on the photo with this story to see some shots of other stores in the chain to get a feel for the brand’s vibe.

The 12,000-square-foot store will open in the next several weeks — along with a batch of other highly touted, if not trendy, national brands ranging from Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics to Frye, the boot company with a history that dates back to 1863.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams also hopes to take advantage of synergies with other lifestyle and home products retailers that are moving into Northside, such as Restoration Hardware, which ABJ featured in an article earlier this year, Design Within Reach, innovative home appliance store Pirch and Nordstrom, to name a few.

Though Gold has worked with some of the biggest names in retail development such as Taubman (NYSE: TCO), he was impressed by Endeavor’s pluck and follow through.

“They’re an incredibly professional group,” Gold said.

Billy Osherow, Endeavor’s principal of retail, took the lead pursuing Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.

“Our merchandising strategy has been a threefold,” Osherow said. “First, a dedicated effort to reach out to best-in-class local Austin business owners; second, to reach out to the pre-eminent retailers in the U.S. such as Sephora, Sur La Table, Lush, Evereve, Marmi and many others; third, we have made it a priority to recruit the very best, leading emerging brands to our project.”

Nordstrom will open its second Austin store Sept. 30 at Domain Northside and other retailers are having their own grand opening celebration at that time. Shannon Ricca has been named manager for Nordstrom’s second Austin location, which will hire 250 people in Austin.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams plans to open September 28. Expect both Gold and Williams to be there. They’ve been business partners for almost 30 years.

“The cornerstone of our business has been that we really just want to give great service,” Gold said. “Having our own stores, training our own people, creating our displays is how we have controlled our own destiny.