Brookfield Place aims to spur growth of luxury retail in FiDi

The Financial District, a land of sky-high office towers and the many workers who power them, is angling to become a shopping destination anchored by Brookfield Office Properties’ Brookfield Place.

High-end apparel retailers such as Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo, Michael Kors and Hermes will populate the office and retail complex, formerly known as the World Financial Center, giving the neighborhood a ritzy lineup previously unthinkable in the Financial District. The latest posh shop to join the bunch is Italian menswear store Ermenegildo Zegna, which picked up a 10-year lease for a 2,550-square-foot, two-story space that boasts street and underground access to the World Trade Center.

“The names on that list would never have come Downtown 10 years ago,” Brookfield’s David Cheikin, who heads the firm’s Lower Manhattan strategy, told the New York Observer.

The complex is in the midst of a $250 million renovation of 250,000 square feet, and is set to open in the fall of 2014.

Single adults with average annual incomes of $130,000 constitute 26 percent of the area population, while young couples with household incomes of $228,000 make up 33 percent. Booming tourism following Lower Manhattan’s recovery post-9/11 is also bringing dollars to the neighborhood, with visitors helping to create $55.3 billion in economic impact last year, according to data from the Downtown Alliance cited by the Observer. [NYO] — Julie Strickland