Sephora, a popular makeup and skin care retailer, will open in the former Whole Foods space in Harbor East, just east of the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore.

The new store is expected to open in late summer, the landlord, Harbor East Management Group, said Wednesday.

The Sephora brand, viewed as prestigious and sought-after, is expected to draw shoppers to the upscale Harbor East neighborhood and to downtown, said Tim O’Donald, president of Harbor East Management Group.

“Welcoming Sephora to Harbor East is a coup for the neighborhood and for Baltimore City,” O’Donald said in an announcement Wednesday.

Sephora will open on Fleet Street at its intersection with Exeter Street in what had been a Whole Foods store before the grocer relocated to a new, larger spot last summer at Liberty Harbor East, an upscale, 22-story apartment building that opened nearby in 2019.

Sephora opened its first U.S. stores more than two decades ago, featuring more than 400 brands of makeup, skin care, hair and fragrance products.

The online and brick-and-mortar retailer is known for its eye-catching store design and in-store beauty advisers.

In the Baltimore area, Sephora has stores in Towson Town Center, The Mall in Columbia and Mill Station in Owings Mills as well as store-within-store concepts in area JCPenney department stores.

Other new tenants coming to Harbor East this year will include home furnishing retailer Lovesac, which will open a showroom at the corner of Aliceanna and South Exeter streets, and Bar ONE Restaurant & Lounge, an Afro Caribbean restaurant under construction at 1000 Lancaster St.

The Landmark Theatre at Harbor East is being rebranded as Harbor East Cinemas, with Flagship Premium Cinemas in charge of operations and programming.