Parc joins retail center of North Loop
By ERIC BEST
The customer is always right, and Parc owner Thao Nguyen’s customers told her to move her women’s boutique from East Hennepin to the North Loop. So, she did.
“They all live over here and they’ve been begging us to come over here for years,” she said.
On top of running the business, Nguyen is the shop’s buyer, pulling clothing, beauty products, shoes and accessories from independent and hard-to-find designers out of California, New York and the Pacific Northwest, as well as the Twin Cities.
After closing the East Hennepin location earlier this year and briefly hosting a pop-up space on Washington Avenue, Parc reopened in September in the former Campbell-Logan Bindery building. The 1885 building changed hands last year and is now being renovated for new retail and residential users under the brand Smyth Lofts.
The shop refreshes the 133-year-old structure with white-painted brick and a storefront with wide windows. Beyond fewer square feet, Nguyen said Parc remains largely the same.
“Everything that you knew of Parc from Northeast is going to be the Parc you see here,” she said.
Nguyen recently got back from New York where she was perusing spring and summer fashion lines. What’s hot right now, she said, are oversized Sherpa outerwear, sometimes referred to as teddy coats. Parc carries a few of pieces.
“Any sweaters that look like you can just curl up in (them), everyone’s been loving,” she said.
The boutique is selling out of the current line of apparel, shoes and accessories from Barcelona-based Paloma Wool.
“We’ve carried her line for a little while, but I feel like this season has been really good,” she said.
Parc follows Hazel & Rose, another women’s boutique that recently made the jump for Northeast to the North Loop. The neighborhood is seeing some movement among retailers, including Filigree Jewelers next door. The independent jewelry retailer consolidated its MartinPatrick3 and bridal stores inside the Colonial Warehouse Building into the space vacated by C’est Chic in July on the ground floor of Whitney Square Lofts. Mulberrys Garment Care has a new dry cleaning service in the former bindery building.
Parc, now at 212 N. 2nd St., is open 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Monday and Saturday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and noon–4 p.m. Sunday.’
