Chicago Jewelry Store Is Called `The Mansion’ for Good Reason

CD
Peacock, Oak Brook, IL

OWNER: Steven Holtzman; URL: cdpeacock.com; FOUNDED: 1837; Opened featured location: 2024; EMPLOYEES: 74 (72 full-time, 2 part-time); AREA: 20,900 square feet; interior DESIGN: Steven Holtzman and Stanley Hunter, director of visual merchandising; TOP BRANDS: Rolex, Anita Ko, Bell & Ross, Chanel, Blancpain, Fernando Jorge; online presence: 5,000 Facebook followers; 3.9 Stars on Yelp; 6,205 followers Instagram

Steven Holtzman

WHILE CD PEACOCK’S history dates to 1837 in Chicago, the Holtzman family didn’t step into the ownership role until the 1990s. That’s when Seymour Holtzman purchased the then-troubled retailer with an incredible history.

At that time, CD Peacock was part of a group of premier jewelry stores nationwide that fell on hard times. When it came on the auction block, Steven Holtzman’s dad stepped in to buy it and run it from afar.

“He was never Chicago-based,” says the son. “It was a family business without the family [present].”

Steven, at that time a watch distributor for Swiss brands, had no interest in working in his father’s newly acquired store. “This was a business that I swore I would never join,” he explains.

“I was living in Switzerland as a watch distributor and sold to stores like CD Peacock.”

Over his career, Holtzman owned Roger Dubuis North America, which he later sold to Richemont, and founded his own brand, Maîtres du Temps. But four years ago, he felt a shift afoot, then his dad called and asked him if he would like to take over CD Peacock.

The ultramodern showroom of CD Peacock shimmers with shining surfaces, enormous glass windows and clear fixtures.

Holtzman made an about-face.

“It was an easy ‘yes’ for me,” he says. “[CD Peacock] means so much to Chicago, and it was a great opportunity and good timing. What it needed was a family to be in the family business.”

CD Peacock’s brand history is like nothing else. Records confirm that it was the first business registered in Chicago in February 1837 when Elijah and Rebecca Peacock, English immigrants, opened the store at 155 ½ Lake Street as the House of Peacock. Mary Todd Lincoln and Marshall Field were among its clientele. The Peacocks relocated the store in 1843, and when the Great Fire occurred in 1871, much of the city burned to the ground, but the Peacock vault remained intact.

When Steven stepped in to fill his father’s shoes, there were three locations in the Chicago area, including a small store in Oakbrook Center, a massive high-end mall in Oak Brook, IL. Holtzman closed the other two stores to reimagine this grander single-store location. The neighborhood is nice — think Louis Vuitton and scores of other lifestyle brands and high-end restaurants.

Holtzman acquired a prominent exterior corner location adjacent to Tiffany & Co. that was a blocky dark restaurant, but Holtzman’s head was in the clouds — literally, and, eventually, figuratively, as the new exterior was inspired by lenticular cloud formations. Over two years, he reimagined and rebuilt the space with the help of a phenomenal team of design specialists. 

Today, a serpentine glass façade hypnotizes guests to the two-story light-filled space overflowing with high design, custom everything, and 20,900 square feet of pure luxury. No wonder it is nicknamed ‘The Mansion,’ as it is nothing short of gasp-inducing awe and delight from the moment you lay eyes on the facade to the time you examine the jewelry and watch treasures within. Bonus: The Mansion also houses Rolex and Chanel shop-in-shops, and boutiques from Tudor, Omega and Cartier (which the French house calls an Espace).

From decades of Holtzman’s international travels as a watch salesman to the finest luxury stores on the planet, he made many notes on chic ideas for possible future use. This is where plans for the commercial kitchen and circular bar — both in store — originated.

“I had [an account] in Moscow that had a Michelin Star chef three days a week,” says Holtzman. “In Singapore, there was a store that made belts and shoes for clients. There was a store in Tokyo that had an incredible bar. I tried to take the best of all the things that I’d seen in my 35 years in the watch business and put them in one place.”

Some Holtzman family heirlooms also made their way to the store. Framed original letters from President Lincoln and the original Norman Rockwell painting “The Jewelry Shop” line the walls of a VIP room. An original one-of-a-kind Tiffany & Co. bronze-and-glass ceiling fixture that hung in his parents’ Pennsylvania home now takes up residence as the centerpiece of a horological zodiac scene, inspired by a watch Holtzman manufactured, painted on the ceiling of the contemporary jewelry section.

Holtzman’s many unique ideas and treasures live alongside a host of other stunning appointments thanks to Stanley Hunter, director of visual merchandising.

“The skeleton of the store was already mapped out, so there was a great runway for him to immediately be able to add value,” notes Holtzman.

Hunter’s vast experience as a design-sourcing powerhouse for other high-end brands enabled him to thoughtfully fill every CD Peacock planned space, wall covering, seat, light fixture, and more (much more) with custom-made creations over which interior décor gurus will salivate.

Hunter’s handiwork is evident in the Proposal Room, which is outfitted with custom bronze armchairs featuring tweed fabric seats from an Italian factory that is said to supply European couturiers. In other areas, custom-made resin end tables resemble cracked ice, and an elevator stuns with high-gloss ash wood, custom Italian marble floors, and burnished bronze doors. The walls of the VIP salon feature seven coats of red lacquer paint. This is no ordinary store, and this is one of the reasons why it routinely attracts 650 guests on any given Saturday.

One of Holtzman’s fave findings by Hunter? Original oak library card catalog cabinets from the City Colleges of Chicago circa 1967 that he repurposed into custom watch strap holders in an upstairs leather bar. “I always wanted to be able to show thousands of straps in a store,” says Holtzman.

And there’s so much more to see, like floating vanilla-hued native-stone stairs cut from adjacent slabs to ensure continuous vein patterns, and a ‘Just Engaged’ LED sign — Holtzman’s idea, inspired by Krispy Kreme’s ‘Hot Now’ neon sign, that Hunter executed for him — in the Proposal Room.

And as if all these efforts and designs aren’t glorious enough, the CD Peacock team is already thinking bigger. “The store only opened in April 2024, and we’re already planning additions,” says Holtzman.

Five Cool Things About CD Peacock

1. WEAR SNEAKERS. When you join the staff at CD Peacock, you get more than a job and a gorgeous place to work. You also get sneakers — white Adidas tennis shoes. “We enable our sales associates to cover the extensive sales space in a comfortable and disarming style,” explains Holtzman.

2. BIG EVENTS. The events the store hosts are as plentiful as the precious gems in its cases. From holiday parties to gatherings for watch collectors to hosted lobster lunches for service employees within a five-mile radius, the store knows how to throw a party. It even sponsors a Fourth of July Fireworks extravaganza that attracts 25,000 people. “The Mansion was designed with the community at its heart,” says Holtzman.

3. CUBS PARTNER. CD Peacock is the Official Jewelry & Watch Partner of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. The arrangement gives the store naming rights to Wrigley Field’s Premier Entrance and is the official sponsor of the trophy room inside the ballpark that houses the 2016 World Series Championship trophy. CD Peacock also sponsors The CD Peacock Chicago Cubs Player of the Month Award, where the winning player receives an inscribed watch from the brand on the field before the home crowd.

4. STRIKE A POSE. To date, marketing campaigns have been shot by renowned photographer Richard Phibbs at Wrigley Field in Chicago featuring a range of couples and representations of beauty. Kat Irwin shot another campaign for them with a bridal focus and another varied group of couples in love. “CD Peacock’s Love and Celebration campaign transforms a traditional bridal collection into a celebration of all forms of love — couples, unions, anniversaries, milestones, and self-purchases,” says Holtzman.

5. LOVE LETTER TO CHICAGO. The Love and Celebration collection, which is designed in house, is a wearable love letter to the beauty and architecture of Chicago. Three neighborhood-specific collections — River North, Lincoln Park, and Gold Coast — pay homage to these unique enclaves through iconography, including X motifs on the band of a ring inspired by the John Hancock building.

PHOTO GALLERY (11 IMAGES)