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DCOTA heads in a new direction under a different owner
Charlyne Varkonyi Schaub
Home & Garden
February 10, 2006

Since 1996, it was easy for us to decorate our homes with the upscale furnishings normally available only to the design trade.

All you had to do was call the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach and make an appointment with the Designer on Call service. One of the participating designers would give you two hours of free advice and take you shopping in the showrooms. The purchase price was net (40 to 50 percent
below retail), plus a fee for the designer. DCOTA controlled the fee, which ranged from 20 to 30 percent on top of what you bought.

It was a great gig. Even I used the service, buying the Brunschwig & Fils wallpaper I saw in House & Garden for our laundry room, an elegant Chapman chandelier and two pieces of art for the dining room.

But since last June, it looked like the doors of this exclusive design mecca would be slammed shut forever unless you hooked up with an architect or designer on a project to get you in the door. Charles S. Cohen, who bought DCOTA last June, was telling every press person within 50 miles that he had a different vision for DCOTA and was going to make it "more designer friendly" and "more exclusive." His rhetoric made it sound like DCOTA would be less "consumer friendly." (Cohen, the Donald Trump of design centers, also owns the Design & Decoration Building in New York City, the Pacific
Design Center in Los Angeles and the Decorative Center in Houston.)

No commitments

The confident 53-year-old real estate mogul, who looks more like a designer than a businessman in his colorful shirts and ties, asked to meet with me last week to describe his vision.

"We don't want to be perceived as stealing clients from decorators," he said, explaining that many design folks were upset that the public had gained such easy access to exclusive brands.

Cohen has replaced Designer on Call with DCOTA Design Services, a two-pronged approach to introducing the public to high-end design. The program is run by Patricia "Trish" Basile, a DCOTA veteran who worked in the marketing department and as the head of Designer on Call.

The main part of the program is for those of you looking to work with a designer. You'll meet with Basile to discuss the details of your project. She'll question you about your budget and taste and give you three designers to interview. The designers have been screened for whether they shop at
DCOTA, their reputation for paying bills and dealing with clients. They are all licensed by Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which gives you recourse in case of unresolved disputes. Basile
said she has 13 designers on her list and hopes to have 25 designers.

"If the customer is not working with a designer, we will help them find someone to work with," she said. "The consumer will look at their portfolios, talk to the designers and see which one they feel most
comfortable working with."

Designers work differently, but expect to pay the net cost of the products you want to buy plus the designers' fee, which DCOTA will not dictate. Typically, those add-on fees can range from 25 to 45 percent.

More exclusiveness

The second part of the program, which Cohen said is not something he plans to promote heavily, is a "limited" buying service. If you know what you want (such as that Brunschwig & Fils wallpaper), you can buy it through Basile. The cost will be the showroom's net price plus a 20 percent fee for DCOTA's service.

Cohen, who has the public relations savvy of someone used to speaking in sound bites, summed up the new DCOTA.

"Is it accessible to everyone? Yes. Is it exclusive? Yes. Is it for everyone? No. Can it be? Yes."

Cohen's new business model is intended to placate designers who felt their domain was no longer exclusive and those who saw Designer on Call as a humiliating experience that turned professionals into furniture salespeople.
Many of the showroom staff didn't want to deal with consumers who didn't know what they wanted or how a design center operated.

But will Cohen's new plan bring in more designers?

The reason many design centers opened to the public in the late 1980s was because designer business dropped and consumers were more cautious in their buying decisions.

But things may be different with George W. Bush in the White House. The high-end is thriving -- whether it's a market for a $150,000 kitchen or a $5,000 watch. Only time and DCOTA's sales receipts will tell the end of this
story.

Write Charlyne Varkonyi Schaub, Home & Garden Editor at: Sun-Sentinel, 200
E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 or e-mail her at
cschaub@sun-sentinel.com.



Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel



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