West Elm opens downtown

This story originally appeared in NNBW on Aug. 15

West Elm’s new store opened in Reno on Thursday, Aug. 11. The 11,000-square-foot store opened in the historic U.S. Post Office building and features West Elm’s fall assortment, including Fair Trade Certified, handcrafted and local Reno-based products. The store also has an in-store Design Lab with complimentary design services.

“We are beyond thrilled about the location,” Nicole Sutliff, spokeswoman for West Elm, said during a private tour.

“So much of our brand is about bringing the old and the new together and being able to physically encompass that with this space is great,” Sutliff said. “So much of the originality of the Post Office has been able to work within our space.”

Fifty South Virginia developer Bernie Carter announced that West Elm would be moving into the main floor of the historic U.S. Post Office at Fifty South Virginia earlier this year.

A member of the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. portfolio of brands, West Elm’s store in Fifty South Virginia is the first major retailer to move into downtown in many years, and the store’s first venture into northern Nevada.

“Every store we have provides stylist services. It is a free service for our customers,” Stella Shi, spokeswoman for West Elm, said. “We never want to dictate to our customers to do their entire home in West Elm. Our designers will work with existing items as well.”

“We really want our customers to feel at home and love the space they are living in,” Shi said.

“People in Nevada have larger homes than say, Brooklyn, so we are able to showcase some of our larger product,” Sutliff explained about the 11,000-square-foot space.

“The skylight is really unique too, we have never had a store with this much natural lighting,” Shi said.

Regarding West Elm’s venture into the Reno market, “it is really two parts here in Reno specifically. You have a customer who really cares about their home and a city that is going through a really exciting evolution,” Sutliff said.

The home decor shop features an eclectic mix of unique items from artisans and crafters. Many are Fair Trade Certified handcrafted products from its 5,000-plus artisans from around the world. The retailer also contracts with local artisans to add a unique touch to each store.

“All of our stores have a local assortment, curated by our shop manager,” Sutliff said.

The Reno store features reclaimed woodwork from Wildwood Supply Co., a local artist, behind their point of sales systems. In addition this area features the old mailboxes and has accents of gold incorporated to compliment the outside of the building.

Other local artisans include Pantry Products, L&M, Paper Boat Studios, Haus of Reed and more.

West Elm’s Fifty South Virginia location incorporated a great deal of the historic Post Office into their flowing showroom space; Vaults, Post Master watch points and old mailboxes to name a few.

“We want this to be a place where people come and gather. We actually will be managing this whole hallway space (area facing the river) and doing community events,” Sutliff said. “We’ve hired a community manager for the store to run those events.”

“A community spot is something we haven’t done before, so we are excited about the local hub idea,” Shi said.

“When we come to a new city, we obviously want to bring out great offerings to the community, but we also want to be part of the community; that’s why the community hub is such a big deal for us,” Shi said.

“We are testing it out in Reno and if it does well we are going to roll that out to other stores moving forward,” Shi explained.

The new West Elm location will be providing about 30 local jobs to the community, she said.

West Elm recently became the exclusive retail partners for Casper mattresses.

“We will be showing Casper mattresses in all our U.S. stores,” Shi explained.

The store is currently set with their fall line, but only until the end of September when their seasonal line will switch to holiday.

To learn more about West Elm, visit their new location at Fifty South Virginia or visit www.westelm.com.