Design Within Reach had big plans for a 15,000-square-foot furniture and accessories showroom in downtown Philadelphia as a tenant of the much-ballyhooed East Market project. It was also to mark the brand’s return to the city.
But those plans have been scrapped. Instead, the retailer, known by the initials DWR, announced it would open its first showroom in Boston as well as a new outlet store in Oxnard, Calif., about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
“A Philly showroom wouldn’t be profitable,” said a company representative in the New York Design Within Reach showroom, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the project. “The decision was made last month. The numbers didn’t add up.”
MSC Retail represented DWR for the site at 11th and Ludlow Streets, attached to the 4.3-acre East Market project, which has been heralded as a critical piece of the long-neglected corridor’s retail, office, and residential revival.