Club Monaco N.Y. Flagship to Offer Books and Coffee

Club Monaco Inc. (Toronto) will be opening a sprawling new flagship store in New York’s Flatiron District next week that will incorporate other retail businesses.

The 20,000-square-foot renovation and expansion will also include Toby’s Estate Coffee, an outpost of a popular Brooklyn coffee shop originally from Australia, and a bookstore operated by The Strand.

According to the New York Times, there will also be a 1920s-era haberdashery display within the men’s store, a conservatory with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and decorative hints reminiscent of the retailing period when the neighborhood around Fifth Avenue from 18th street to 34th was known as Ladies’ Mile.

The in-house design drew inspiration from the neighborhood’s past, including such now-gone department stores as B. Altman and Best & Co.

That also includes The Strand, the 86-year-old bookstore on Union Square that has a documented 18 miles of used and new books. The store inside Club Monaco will have 2500 books jointly selected by the two retailers, tucked inside the store’s so-called library.

However, the bookstore and coffee shop are contemporizing efforts “to bring our blog to life,” said Allison Greenberg, Club Monaco’s director of marketing and communications, referring to Culture Club, which was started online two years ago and has more than 260,000 followers.

“We wanted to reinforce our status as a true lifestyle destination,” she said.

Club Monaco is owned by Polo Ralph Lauren Inc. (New York).