CHANEL

Unlike nearly every major French luxury house, CHANEL has never been publicly listed, and it refuses the suggestion each time analysts, journalists, or prospective investors raise it. The Wertheimer family has controlled the company since Théophile Wertheimer entered a licensing agreement with Gabrielle Bonheur Coco Chanel in 1924, and his grandsons Alain and Gérard Wertheimer now own it in its entirety. Leena Nair was appointed Global CEO in 2021, the first outsider and the first woman to lead the company, and Frédéric Grangié serves as President, CHANEL Fashion.

Gabrielle Coco Chanel opened her first hat shop on Rue Cambon in Paris in 1910, followed by boutiques in Deauville and Biarritz, before establishing the couture house that would produce the cardigan jacket, the little black dress, the two-tone shoe, and the No. 5 fragrance, launched in 1921 and still the world’s best-selling perfume. CHANEL reported revenues of $19.69 billion in 2023, the most recently published annual figure, up 16% year-over-year, placing it among the three largest luxury houses by revenue globally alongside Louis Vuitton and Hermès, with operating profit of $6.4 billion at a margin above 30%. Karl Lagerfeld’s 36-year tenure as Creative Director ended with his death in February 2019. Virginie Viard succeeded him before departing in June 2024, and Matthieu Blazy, formerly of Bottega Veneta, was appointed Creative Director in February 2025.

Across the Malls.com network, CHANEL is tracked at Class A++ positions including Bal Harbour Shops, South Coast Plaza, Wynn Plaza, The Shops at Crystals, Ala Moana Center, NorthPark Center, Mall at Green Hills in Nashville, Tysons Galleria, Miami Design District, Westfield Century City, Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Americana Manhasset, and The Mall at Short Hills in the US. International positions include The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto, CAP 3000 near Nice, and 1 Utama in Petaling Jaya, alongside tracked positions in Hong Kong, Germany, Thailand, Israel, Greece, and the United Kingdom.

CHANEL occupies the same apex-luxury tier as Hermès and Louis Vuitton, functioning less as a commercial tenant than as an institutional co-anchor that defines the caliber of a luxury wing. Its presence is a prerequisite for any shopping center that aspires to host the full European luxury spectrum, and its absence from a luxury cluster typically signals that the center has not reached the minimum threshold of fashion-house density, real estate quality, or shopper demographic that CHANEL’s strict site selection requires. Store formats range from 1,500-square-foot boutiques in tightly anchored luxury wings to 8,000- to 15,000-square-foot maison destinations at a country’s primary luxury positions. Because the brand controls distribution entirely through directly operated boutiques, each CHANEL location represents a long-term commitment rather than a licensed or wholesale placement that a landlord could easily backfill.