‘For lease’ guy Jay Luchs reveals massive overhaul coming for Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip

Sunset Strip is set for a huge revamp as it turns away from its playboy past towards a more refined future, a top Los Angeles realtor has revealed.

Jay Luchs, who has dozens of “for lease” signs up along the iconic street, outlined a list of luxury names heading to the West Hollywood hotspot in the coming months.

He told the California Post that LESET, Barefoot Dreams and Pura Vida jewelry will open stores as well as a host of other brands he said he was not at liberty to disclose yet.

It comes after locals and businesses said the area had become a ghost town with empty shops, plummeting footfall sparked by extortionate rent prices and changing consumer habits.

Some said Sunset Strip had “lost its soul” with crowd favorites such as the Viper Room, Chin Chin, Pink Taco and Le Petit Four disappearing.

But Luchs claimed the street was not dead but undergoing a period of drastic change, with it modernizing more into a Rodeo Drive-style attraction.

Luchs, the executive vice chairman at Newmark, said: “There’s a lot happening here. The Sunset Strip has been famous forever, we see millions of cars driving by right now, it’s not like it’s dead but it changes.”

The Post walked the Strip with him as he pushed back on concerns from workers and locals who claim the area has been dying since COVID.

“You still have the Roxy, you still have the Rainbow, Tower Records became Supreme,” Luchs said, adding the majority of the spaces that are currently empty have a new business set to open.

“LESET, a major brand coming to this location — two weeks ago it said for lease,” Luchs told The Post. “We just signed Blank Street Coffee, we also have Pura Vida that just opened three weeks ago right next to that.”

“We have a sushi place that we are not allowed to announce but its really popular, people will know it if its announced and that’s going on this block as well,” he added.

Barefoot Dreams, a luxury loungewear and apparel store is taking over a 4,000 square foot store near the Equinox with a coffee shop that will open in the back.

Luchs noted while the Strip is “reinventing” from its rock-and-roll heyday to one defined by more trendy restaurants and retail, echoes of its storied past remain.

Places like Whiskey A Go Go, Chateau Marmont, The Comedy Store, and the Tower Bar are historic venues that helped make it the “sexiest strip in America” and continue to thrive alongside new places.

“SoHo House is newer, Birds Streets is newer, Prince Street Pizza, Bar Next Door, and they are all on the street and busy,” Luchs said.

While the perception from some store owners and locals is that the Strip is no longer the bustling corridor it once was, Luchs told The Post he’s helped put in at least 12 new businesses on the strip over the past year but it takes time to go through the building process.

“It’ll look different in a couple of months, but by next year it will be in a whole other phase — it just depends on how fast they can build,” Luchs said.

And it couldn’t come at a better time, as West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman acknowledged Wednesday that “Sunset presents challenges” in his State of the City address.

“A number of developments that were approved are not moving forward. A number of vacancies,” he said, according to WEHOnline.

Data from last year’s State of the City showed the vanishing appeal of opening a shop or nightclub on the Sunset Strip, with vacancy rates at 10.3% for retail and 16.3% for offices.

But like Luchs, the Mayor is optimistic about the future with stores like Kith and Skims bringing in new life and a wave of companies slated to open in the coming months.

“I have a very bright outlook for West Hollywood’s future,” Heilman said.

Luchs noted that the Strip isn’t perfect and it’s sad to see famous places shut their door, the “culture” remains — it might just looks a little different.

“I think Sunset Strip is one of the top places in the whole world,” he added.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters