Saks Global has finally made official what was largely expected: the historic Neiman Marcus flagship will permanently shut down at the end of March.
“Our decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store is final and we are moving forward as such,” a Saks Global spokesperson said in a firmly written statement issued Tuesday morning.
Saks also suggested that a meeting later this week between one of its officials and the Dallas Consortium, a group of civic leaders pressing Saks to keep the store open, won’t happen. Saks previously indicated March 31 is the last day the store will be open for business.
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“While we had been willing to hear the consortium’s perspective, a meeting was not confirmed,” the Saks spokesperson said. “We have made several attempts to be connected directly to the city manager, as an official representative of the City of Dallas, and we were denied.”
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Last week, the Dallas Consortium claimed it had reached a deal that could keep the downtown Neiman Marcus flagship open. The deal involves the transfer of a piece of the property in dispute to the city from the landlord, thereby ending disagreements between the landlord and Neiman Marcus involving the land lease. Saks initially said the dispute with the landlord was the reason for closing the store, but subsequently indicated that the flagship’s business prospects were a factor in closing the store. Saks cited “the slow resurgence of the downtown Dallas area over the last several years” and a preference among customers to shop the Neiman Marcus store in NorthPark Center, which is also in Dallas. Saks says it is planning a $100 million renovation of the NorthPark Dallas store.
The Saks spokesperson said Tuesday that the Dallas Consortium was misleading the public about the store and its future. “The Dallas Consortium’s ongoing tactic of using the press to pressure us into changing our strategy in Dallas is highly unproductive,” the Saks spokesperson said. “Even after our corrections to their previous false statements, they continue to go to the press, making inaccurate claims.…This is a far more complicated situation than what the public is being led to believe and has been going on for more than a decade.”
Though time is running out, the Dallas Consortium isn’t giving up on its fight to keep Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas. On Tuesday, the group held another press conference in front of the store, protesting the impending closing and pressing for a meeting with Saks Global, which the group said Saks previously agreed to. “We hope that Saks will live up to its word and come and meet with the consortium in person. Otherwise, I am personally happy to lead a delegation to New York City for a productive meeting,” Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, who is part of the consortium, said in a statement read by Jennifer Scripps, the president and chief executive officer of Downtown Dallas Inc., during the press conference.
Members of the Dallas Consortium include Linda McMahon, CEO; Dallas Economic Development Corporation; Shawn Todd, chairman, founder, Todd Interests, as well as Tolbert and Scripps.
Last December, Saks acquired the Neiman Marcus Group for $2.7 billion.