On Thursday, Neiman Marcus Group announced that it will close four of its luxury department stores — including the one at Hudson Yards and locations in Bellevue, Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale — as well as 17 Last Call outlets.
At the end of March, Neiman Marcus was forced to shut down all 43 of its physical locations as well as its two Bergdorf Goodman stores and Last Call outlets, before filing for bankruptcy protection on May 7. They were the first major fashion retailer to do so. Since then, they reopened several stores for customer traffic and customer appointments, according to Lana Todorovich, president and chief merchandizing officer of Neiman Marcus. But after these closures, Neiman Marcus will have 39 locations.
The 188,000-square-foot location at Hudson Yards hoped to draw tourists, office workers, and New Yorkers alike to the glitzy new $25 billion development. But the allure was fleeting once the pandemic hit just a year later. A spokesperson for the retailer said, “Hudson Yards is no longer an ideal space for us given the preponderance of restaurants and future office space in that mall.” Related Cos., one of the real-estate developers of Hudson Yards, is already planning to repurpose the store, saying that the closure “opens up a great opportunity to create incredibly attractive office space.”
“While we have no other store closures to announce at this time, we will continue to assess our store fleet throughout the restructuring process. We will communicate any additional decisions as they are made,” Todorovich told vendors in a letter Thursday. “The closing of these select stores is a difficult action but it will optimize our market presence and ensure the long-term success of NMG.”
Looking into the retail group’s future, it’s likely there will be additional store closings, according to WWD. Neiman’s has been working with A&G Real Estate Partners to market several locations across the U.S.
