by Sophia Salganicoff

A new store is coming to Germantown Avenue this June. Greene Street Consignment, which currently has two stores in Chestnut Hill, will be turning its 8518 Germantown Ave. location – currently a Greene Street Kid’s – into Greene Street Men’s.

This may come as a surprise to some, as the Chestnut Hill community is home to many young families, but Greene Street Consignment district manager Julie Ceccatti said that the new men’s shop will bring “more variety to Germantown Avenue” and “cater to the men of Chestnut Hill.”

This is the company’s first venture into a male-only consignment shop. Ceccatti said her firm has become aware of an ever-increasing “demand for men’s clothing, especially great men’s clothing.”

Kathie Meadows, retail recruiter for the Chestnut Hill Business Association, agreed, saying that the Business Association has noticed this increase in demand for men’s clothing, with “more and more men shopping for themselves.”

According to Meadows, “Green Street has contributed greatly to the renaissance of retail and restaurants on Germantown Ave,” invigorating the market for environmentally conscious (but still stylish) secondhand shopping on the Hill. The new men’s shop seems to be a continuation on this path, as it will create a more environmentally friendly clothing alternative for the men of Chestnut Hill.

The goal of Greene Street’s big move is to expand its current adult shop from a combined men’s and women’s shop into two separate spaces. The original adults-only store will become a women’s-only clothing shop, and the kid’s location will be repurposed into a men’s clothing store. This will allow for the company to expand its stock of adult items and give each gender “a really great display space,” as adult clothing seems to be “more in demand” than children’s clothing.

With regards to the fate of Greene Street Kid’s, the company plans to relocate its kid’s items 10 to 15 minutes away from Chestnut Hill to its warehouse space in Glenside. According to Ceccatti, the new kid’s location will be an “exciting hybrid of what our company does.” Additionally, Meadows says that exciting talks to bring a different regional children’s retailer to Chestnut Hill are in the works, although the name of that retailer is not available yet.

The men’s shop will open this June, and the children’s warehouse is set to open during this coming summer.