WeHo Residents Preparing For New 'Supreme' Location

WEST HOLLYWOOD (CBSLA) — West Hollywood residents are apprehensively awaiting the arrival of their newest neighbor, after Supreme Clothing announced that they will be opening a new store location within a year's time.

The world-renowned streetwear clothing creator already has another location in Los Angeles, located on Fairfax Avenue.

Now, they're set to open their second Southland location in the old Tower Records Building on Sunset Boulevard.

Even though the store isn't supposed to open until at least Summer 2022, Supreme's reputation proceeds itself, at least when it comes to some of the headlines involving their brand in the past.

In response, residents in the area have expressed tentative concerns, especially in regards to what some people refer to as "flash-mob sales," where customers camp, or wait for new exclusive clothing that is sold for one day only - sometimes days in advance.

While very few and far between, some of those gatherings, which can be rowdy at times, have turned violent in the past, which prompted an emergency virtual town hall meeting on Thursday for some locals who are already concerned by the recent crimes taking place across the Southland.

On top of this, additional congestion in the area has people who work in the area already dreading the traffic.

"Camping and altercations would be a negative side to having a chain like this, especially with a lot of residential space," said Brianna Jordahl, who works close-by.

Their concerns are backed by the recent spike of crime that has plagued the Melrose Shopping District over the last year, including the fatal shooting of a Shoe Palace employee in Aug. 2021. Crimes targeting both business and customer, like "smash and grab" and "follow-home" robberies, have also caused law enforcement agencies to increase patrols in the area in recent months.

Residents who attended the virtual meeting, which included Supreme's Senior Vice President West Rubinstein, voiced their concerns on how the store would operate, and what measures they planned to put into place to prevent a repeat of former incidents and traffic problems, while addressing public safety.

However, according to several reports, the meeting focused mostly on matters of construction, as brought to the group's attention by Afriat Consulting Group's Aaron Green, who said, "I do want to make sure that we fulfill the mandate of this meeting, and talk about the construction and the questions that are coming in."

Rubinstein did offer some clarification though before the meeting ended: "We don't do pop-ups, we don't do flash mobs, we don't allow people to camp in our space over night. We have a pretty developed system of allowing people to make appointments."

They'll have more time to address these matters in the near, and somewhat distant future, as construction is set to begin in February, and will take at least seven months to complete.

Jordahl is looking at the silver lining, especially since the new Supreme location should mean more business in the area, "there's two sides to every coin, and hopefully people - if this is a sure thing - can look at the positive and also negative and try to have a healthy balance of how they approach it in a mental space."

Supreme currently has eight locations around the world, and outside of Los Angeles, the brand can be found in San Francisco, New York City, Brooklyn, London, Paris, Berlin and Milan.