Mar 15, 2010

LA Mart Design Center Ushers in 2010 with New Showroom Openings

Los Angeles, CA – L.A. Mart® Design Center (LAMDC) is proud to announce a powerful leasing start for 2010. Four new tenant-partners with significant regional/national import confirm their confidence in both LAMDC as a premiere design destination and the downtown market’s vitality with long-term lease commitments.

Complementing an impressive roster of current home furnishings showrooms, LAMDC welcomes AGA John Oriental Rugs, Provasi, Loft Appeal Marketplace and a new chapter office for ASID Los Angeles, adding nearly 20,000-square-feet of new designer offerings to serve the Southern California design industry.

“We are thrilled to present such an extraordinary selection of new design center showrooms,” said Mark Furlet, vice president and general manager, L.A. Mart Design Center. “Each of these well-established companies delivers the highest caliber of product along with strong brand value among the design community. Their desire for an L.A. MartDesign Center presence reinforces our position as a pivotal marketplace to create commerce within the industry.”

Aga John Oriental Rugs (Suite 157) features an international selection of hand-made carpets and tapestries, fine art, antiques and furnishings that blend luxury with sophistication and tradition. For 40 years the company has built relationships with the top makers of hand-made carpets and tapestries in the major weaving cities of the world, ensuring a fresh selection of carpets on a regular basis for L.A.’s designers. The LAMDC showroom is the company’s fifth California showroom and illustrates Aga John’s commitment to serving the design community in the region.

Provasi (Suite 110), designers and manufacturers of classical Italian furniture, offers the design trade access to eight exclusive lines of case goods, upholstery and draperies, lighting and decorative accessories. Each luxurious lifestyle collection presents the highest quality workmanship on which the company has built its reputation. Southern California’s designers now have a convenient downtown location from which to source Provasi’s incomparable collections.

Loft Appeal Marketplace (Suite LL-50) started as a furniture retailer serving, for the past seven years, L.A.’s burgeoning downtown lifestyle market. To better fulfill the needs of its interior designer and set decorator clients, the firm decided to open a trade-only location at LAMDC. Providing a combination of new contemporary furniture and furnishings alongside a massive inventory of props from three major Hollywood studios, the new showroom offers designers an eclectic mix of chic styles to satisfy many different project aesthetics.

American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Los Angeles, the leading organization for interior design professionals, chose LAMDC as its newest location for a variety of reasons, most importantly due to the key role the facility plays advancing the needs of the region’s design community. The building’s central location, reputation for excellent tenant service, convenient conference/event facilities, innovative CEU programming and ongoing support of ASID facilitated the decision. The Chapter has already begun working with its Industry Partner showrooms in the building to develop a series educational events and seminars for 2010. “We look forward to working with the building and expanding this practice for the benefit of our membership, many of whom already shop here,” said Jean Pinto, ASID, CID, and president ASID Los Angeles. “L.A. Mart DesignCenter has for decades served at the heart of our design community, and we are thrilled to be able to share a space inside this renowned location.”

ABOUT L.A. MART® DESIGN CENTER:
L.A. Mart is home to over 200 residential, decorative accessory and gift showrooms serving the interior design and retail industries. L.A. Mart Design Center features the finest names in furniture, home décor, fabric, floor and wall coverings, fine art, antiques, lighting and lifestyle merchandise, offering an unparalleled depth and range of product resources for the design professional. L.A. Mart Design Center is centrally located in the heart of the Furniture & Decorative Arts District at 1933 S. Broadway, Los Angeles,Calif., 90007, at the corner of Broadway and Washington Boulevard. www.lamartdesign.com

L.A. MART/MMPI
The L.A. Mart is a registered trademark of MMPI. Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI) is a trade show and property management firm, specializing in managing buildings devoted to wholesale showrooms and commercial office space. MMPI produces more than 300 trade shows, market events and conferences each year.

MMPI manages The Merchandise Mart and 350 W. Mart Center in Chicago; Market Square, the Suites at Market Square, Hamilton Market, Plaza Suites, Furniture Plaza and the National Furniture Mart in High Point, N.C.; the Architects & Designers Building and 7 W New York in New York; the Boston Design Center in Boston; the L.A. Mart in Los Angeles; and the Washington Design Center and Federal Center Southwest in Washington D.C.

Vornado Realty Trust, owner of MMPI, based in New York City, is a fully integrated real estate investment trust. Vornado’s common shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and are traded under the symbol VNO.