Macy's closing 4 Downtown stores across US

[pdxstreetcar]

Of the 5 Macy's closings nationwide, 4 are downtown stores...

Macy's:

Downtown Honolulu, HI (80,000 square feet; opened in 1850 (store must be late 1970s vintage); 91 associates);

Downtown St. Paul, MN (362,000 square feet; opened in 1963; 153 associates);

Downtown Houston, TX (791,000 square feet; opened in 1947; 138 associates).

Paseo Colorado, Pasadena, CA (158,000 square feet; opened in 1980; 116 associates);

Belmont, MA (75,000 square feet; opened in 1978; 101 associates);

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Downtown St. Paul Macy's closing will end a 50-year era

Honolulu: Downtown Macy's store closing this year

Houston: Macy's will soon make final sale in downtown building

Macy’s to Close “Underperforming” Pasadena Store

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In today's retail environment, when a department store closes there arent too many other potential replacements for large retail spaces. CityTarget is about it and those seem to only be going in the most urban of downtowns with large close by populations. The rest of the large retailers are in little position to expand: Sears, Best Buy, etc. (Walmart, K-Mart and JC Penney dont do real urban stores). The high end department stores (Saks, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus) clearly only go in wealthy areas near other department stores save for the unique circumstance of Dallas and its hometown Neiman Marcus.

[Illithid Dude]

On the bright side, Macy's is about to renovate their DTLA store into a flagship store, so it isn't all bad.

[seaskyfan]

I'm surprised the Belmont one stayed open this long. I remember back when it was a Filene's.

[Cirrus]

Walmart is beginning to do real urban stores. This is under construction in downtown DC right now:

[ardecila]

Re: Houston...

[Bob] Eury, [executive director of the Houston Downtown Management District], said Macy's occupies just a portion of the 791,000-square-foot building. There have been recent discussions between the city, the property owner and the retailer about relocating Macy's into a smaller space within the city's core.

"Macy's has expressed very strong interest in downtown," Eury said. "They think it's a strong and viable market."

The retailer, however, was mum.

[pdxstreetcar]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Re: Houston...

Isnt that similar to Washington DC Macys, wasnt it (or its predecessor) in a large historic department store and like 25 years ago moved into its smaller current location? Sounds promising though for Downtown Houston to see it relocated into a new building better suited to current needs. The big problem I see is when a downtown gets down to only 1 major retailer left, people have little reason to visit it because it lacks the 'shopping destination' from many other stores which its competiting malls have.

Good to see Walmart build a real urban store, thats a fantastic store design. If i'm not mistaken though, this is the only real urban Walmart store in the country (I understand there a handful of "urban" Walmart stores that are every bit as suburban in form as those in the suburbs). DC is definitely in the lead nationally on these mixed use urban big box retail projects, I'm eager to visit many of these in person on a future visit to DC.

[Crawford]

I know it goes against the conventional wisdom here on SSP, but downtowns still have many challenges, and downtown retail is still generally in decline in the U.S. (yes, there are many notable exceptions).

Macys, BTW, is a very healthy company, with extremely robust sales, and is generally in expansion mode. This is a locational issue, not a corporate one.

And these new urban WalMarts are hardly replacements. First, they aren't conventional WalMarts. They're mini, limited-selection retail outlets, more like large drug stores than small department store. You would need 10 of these urban WalMarts to equal a conventional department stores. And WalMart absolutely sucks.

[Chicago103]

Originally Posted by Crawford

I know it goes against the conventional wisdom here on SSP, but downtowns still have many challenges, and downtown retail is still generally in decline in the U.S. (yes, there are many notable exceptions).

Macys, BTW, is a very healthy company, with extremely robust sales, and is generally in expansion mode. This is a locational issue, not a corporate one.

And these new urban WalMarts are hardly replacements. First, they aren't conventional WalMarts. They're mini, limited-selection retail outlets, more like large drug stores than small department store. You would need 10 of these urban WalMarts to equal a conventional department stores. And WalMart absolutely sucks.

Admitedly I don't know the hard statistics of this but two things about what you said. #1: The recession means retail has been in decline everywhere and it is only logical this would happen even in the downtowns of major cities. #2: It might depend on what cities you define in downtown retail. For instance downtown retail may be having problems in Toledo, OH but in cities like NYC, LA and Chicago it is more successful at least relatively. Yes all urban downtowns face challenges of some kind but unfortunately it is the smaller cities that have far worse problems where there is no critical mass to counteract the deeply intrenched suburban mentality.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by pdxstreetcar

Isnt that similar to Washington DC Macys, wasnt it (or its predecessor) in a large historic department store and like 25 years ago moved into its smaller current location?

That's pretty much what happened here. Here's the original building (which still exists and still has stores on the lower floors):


by army arch on flickr


And here's the "new" version, built in 1985. The Macy's has no windows. The upper floors are offices.


by joe architect on flickr

[dave8721]

Macy's just sold their downtown Miami building last week as well but supposedly will remain in the building as a lease.

[AviationGuy]

Here's the downtown Houston Macy's (the orangish building on the left). I feel very nostalgic about this, because when it was Foley's, my grandmother would take me there on Saturdays during the 60s, when downtown was jammed with thousands of pedestrians. It was a huge store, full of cool things, including a toy department like you wouldn't believe. That's where we went to have photos taken of us with Santa Claus. Foley's also had an outstanding formal restaurant where people dressed up to dine. I think it was called the Venetian Room or something like that. I don't know when Macy's took over.

Anyone else have nostalgic stories about this store?


(from Google Earth)

[pdxtex]

how relevant are mid-tier department stores in downtowns anyway? i mean, im not going to drive all the way downtown to get a pair of tommy hilfiger socks. macy's clearly serves a market niche but its not tourists or newly urban and hip downtown dwellars.

[JG573]

Originally Posted by dave8721

Macy's just sold their downtown Miami building last week as well but supposedly will remain in the building as a lease.

Was a bit old post but nothing is unusual about that as now a days most companies do not own the buildings they are in as many chains have learned hard lessons from companies like K-Mart. They realized that having these buildings as the largest chunk of their assets is a death wish if they have trouble as they are hard to sell and have to maintain the property if they ever want to sell it.

I would say that was a smart idea on Macy's part because it eliminates a lot of risk for there downtown Miami store.

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by pdxstreetcar

Of the 5 Macy's closings nationwide, 4 are downtown stores...

Macy's:

Paseo Colorado, Pasadena, CA (158,000 square feet; opened in 1980; 116 associates);

There are two Macy's in close proximity and for me personally I can walk the 1.1 miles from one other with no problem. The Macy's on Lake isn't' really considered downtown Pasadena but both areas blends into the other so its really hard to tell if they are two separate districts. I can see why perhaps one would need to close down.

[Jonboy1983]

I kinda thought that Pittsburgh would have been on this list. Then again, I read the local news media from there and neither paper had a story abou that...

Still, that store has been downsizing over the years, and I wonder if it's only a matter of time...

I guess it's safe to say that outside New York and a select one or two other large "downtowns," big-box/urban retail and even shopping malls in general are no longer viable. The trend now is in specialty retail/neo-traditional towne centers for the most part.

[Double L]

This has been a very dark week for downtown Houston, not only did we lose a ten story Macy's that has been here for 66 years, we lost a two story Books-a-Million the same week.

Makes me feel like it's April 1st and someone's about to tell me this is a joke.

[LouisianaRush]

Not shocked that Houston lost its downtown Macy's. It was the most depressing Macy's I have ever been into. The outside looked like bomb shelter and the inside was equally depressing and empty. I wonder what will take its place or will the building just remain empty until it is demolished.

[JManc]

Not surprised about Houston's Macy's either. Surprised it held on as long as it did. I'm sure it ill just sit there until they implode it. Books-a-million was no surprise either.

[Trae]

Originally Posted by JManc

Not surprised about Houston's Macy's either. Surprised it held on as long as it did. I'm sure it ill just sit there until they implode it. Books-a-million was no surprise either.

The new Macy's will be going into that Books A Million space. That will help out the Pavilions even more.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Trae

The new Macy's will be going into that Books A Million space. That will help out the Pavilions even more.

source?

a drawing for a proposed redevelopment of the current downtown houston macy's.