Legendary department store La Samaritaine opens after 16 years of renovation

LVMH spent 750 million euros for the reconception and reconstruction of the complex.

The legendary La Samaritaine department store, which was closed for extensive reconstruction in 2005, was inaugurated in Paris. According to the WWD portal, the investment in the restoration and reconstruction of the building was about 750 million euros. 

At the opening ceremony, the LVMH president Bernard Arnault and the French President Emmanuel Macron was cut by the traditional red ribbon. Work on the renovation of the department store, located a block between the Louvre and Notre Dame de Paris, was supposed to be completed back in 2020. The opening has been delayed due to a COVID-19 and retail market crisis. 



The newly renovated La Samaritaine is presented to buyers as a multifunctional facility that includes a shopping center of 20,000 square meters, office space (15,000 square meters), a five-star luxury hotel called Cheval Blank with 72 rooms, and municipal housing, and a kindergarten. 

One of the most famous department stores in Paris belonged to the Japanese architectural bureau Sanaa, designers Hubert de Malherbe and Yabu Pushelberg were responsible for the interior. LVMH structures fully financed the project.



One of the most influential luxury and fashion retailers acquired a controlling stake in the department store in 2001 and then consolidated the business. The iconic department store opened in 1870, and it was closed for a renovation at the beginning of the 21st century. 

The department store occupies a completely renovated Art Nouveau building that has existed since 1910 and a new building with a wavy facade on Rue de Rivoli, designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Sanaa. The authors of the project hope that La Samaritaine will transform and beautify the neighborhood. Previously, the Bourse de Commerce Museum of Contemporary Art opened here, and some other major projects are currently underway. 

"Together with the construction of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the renovation of La Samaritaine represents one of the major European architectural projects of the early 21st century, once again strengthening the international prestige of the French capital," - commented the press service of LVMH. 

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