Loftiest Names in Luxury, Under 2 Chevy Chase Roofs

They are some of the most hallowed names in extreme high-end retail: Cartier ($25,000 watches), MaxMara ($8,000 mink coats), Barneys New York ($350 denim jackets).

With their luxury siblings -- Dior, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co. -- they are setting up boutiques at a $165 million development on Wisconsin Avenue in Montgomery County that retailers, depending on their affinity for various shopping meccas, are comparing to Rodeo Drive or Madison Avenue or Michigan Avenue.

Whatever the preference, the two multi-story buildings going up between Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus -- formally called the Collection at Chevy Chase -- will be something this region has never seen, a critical mass of luxury retailers, some of whom are coughing up an unheard-of $150 per square foot in rent to tap this area's growing wealth.

"This was always a government town, a Brooks Brothers town, for a very long time," said Edward Hall Asher, president of the project's developer, the Chevy Chase Land Co., which has owned much of the neighborhood's land for 115 years.

Simon Doonan, creative director of Barneys New York, agreed. "This old preconception about Washington women being stuck in Dacron suits with tie-neck blouses is completely irrelevant now," he said. "There are just as many groovy women in the Washington area as there are in any other urban area."

Real estate and retail observers say Chevy Chase, just across the border from the District, is the natural place for the stores to congregate. The area -- which includes the Mazza Gallerie mall and other stores on the District side of the line -- has long had an upscale feel.

"Chevy Chase has always had a very elite, very influential reputation in the retail world," said Larry Horton, a New York leasing consultant. "There is a history of wealth there that is well known."

Within three miles of the project, parts of which are scheduled to open in October, the average income is about $87,000, with about 90 percent of residents employed in white-collar jobs.

With a real estate boom and high incomes generated by technology firms and government contracting, that wealth has spread to Bethesda, North Bethesda and Rockville and into northern parts of the county.

The development theory: These people have money to burn, so let's give them one place to do it.

"These people love beautiful objects, and they are very generous," said Stanislas de Quercize, the chief executive of Cartier North America. "They are all generous and all in love. They want to say to somebody, 'You're my friend, you're my love.' " At the Cartier store, one can do that with a $650,000 watch encrusted with rock crystal and diamonds.

The challenge for the developers was to make the Collection at Chevy Chase, which will measure about 112,000 square feet, a distinctive shopping destination that at the same time hews to traditional notions of how luxury retailers do business.