Cartier closes Worth Avenue store in Palm Beach

Cartier shuttered its Palm Beach store along Worth Avenue on Wednesday, as luxury retailers across the country continue to struggle.

The store, at 214 Worth Avenue, was the French jewelry and watch company’s second branch in the U.S., preceded by the Cartier Mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Cartier confirmed the closing to the Palm Beach Daily News.

Worth Avenue was ranked as one of the top 20 retail streets in the country in 2015, home to luxury retailers like Tiffany & Co., Chanel, Gucci, Neiman Marcus and Salvatore Ferragamo.

“The charm and elegance that was Palm Beach and Worth Avenue is being chipped away each year,” Laurel Baker, executive director of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, told the newspaper. “Cartier’s departure closes another chapter in what used to be. It is a loss for everyone and the fantasy that the island once projected. Fortunately, the remaining stores, Tiffany’s, Betteridge and Richters, are stable reminders of what the magic of the avenue was all about.”

In South Florida Cartier has stores at the Town Center at Boca Raton, in the Miami Design District and at Aventura Mall.

At least three deals have closed on Worth Avenue over the past decade. In early 2014, the buildings at 150 and 151 Worth Avenue sold for about $2,000 a square foot. The Tiffany building at 259 Worth Avenue hit the market in November unpriced, but brokers said it could sell for more than $40 million. [Palm Beach Daily News] – Katherine Kallergis