Almost a year after Saks Global purchased rival Neiman Marcus, the combined luxury retailer sold one of its Dallas-area Neiman Marcus stores at a regional mall that is being transformed into a mixed-use property.
The New York City-based chain said it sold the Neiman Marcus at The Shops at Willow Bend at 2201 Dallas Parkway in Plano, Texas, a suburb about 20 miles north of downtown Dallas, to real estate developer Centennial for an undisclosed amount. Neiman Marcus has been at the mall since it opened in 2001 and serves as an anchor tenant. The 150,000-square-foot store is expected to close in January 2027, a Saks Global spokesperson said in a statement.
Centennial is redeveloping The Shops at Willow Bend into a mixed-use destination in a process that's expected to take several years and reflect "the needs of the Plano community," a spokesperson for Centennial said in a separate statement.
The Saks Global spokesperson said the sale "allows the developer to bring its vision for the area to life." For Saks Global, the deal offered the luxury retailer the ability to reinvest in other areas of its business as part of its larger strategy that includes focusing on e-commerce sales.
"This provides our company with the opportunity to strategically reinvest in areas of our business that drive growth and position the company for long-term success," the Saks Global spokesperson said. "Through the regular course of business, we continually evaluate our store footprint and, as in this case, may determine it necessary to reformat or close a store."
Saks Global has no plans to reduce its store portfolio on a broader scale, the company's spokesperson said. Earlier this year, Saks Fifth Avenue stores closed in Palm Beach, Florida, and in downtown San Francisco. Saks Global has slashed about 14% of its U.S. corporate workforce since acquiring Neiman Marcus in a deal with a total enterprise value of $2.7 billion that was finalized at the end of last year.
The deal included funds from tech giants Amazon and Salesforce as minority investors, showing the increasing emphasis on tech for the new parent of Neiman Marcus that also operates the Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th, Last Call and Horchow brands. Saks Global's retail portfolio included 70 full-service luxury locations representing nearly 13 million square feet of prime U.S. real estate holdings and investments, the company said in a separate statement last month.
Saks Global has reportedly been struggling financially in the wake of the Neiman Marcus deal as loans tied to two commercial mortgage-backed securities are coming due, Bloomberg reported in August.
Dallas presence
Saks Global had once planned to close the flagship Neiman Marcus store in downtown Dallas, but those plans have been put on pause in hopes of working out an alternative with the city of Dallas by the end of the year on a "potential reimagination" of the store, the Saks Global spokesperson said.
Neiman Marcus was founded in downtown Dallas in 1907 and also has stores in the region at NorthPark mall in Dallas and at The Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth.
"Dallas-Fort Worth continues to be an important market for the company," the Saks Global spokesperson said.
As Saks Global winds down operations at the Neiman Marcus store at the Plano mall, the retailer plans to transfer employees to other stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth region where possible, the spokesperson said. Some employees will be offered separation packages.
This year, Saks Global closed Neiman Marcus' corporate headquarters in Dallas with plans to consolidate offices at the retailer's headquarters in New York City.