It is with a heavy heart that I announce that the Downtown Dallas Neiman Marcus is heading to permanent closure on March 31st, 2025. Saks Global refused to even meet with City of Dallas leadership regarding a potential deal to keep the store open.
Instead, they issued a statement from their ivory tower in Downtown Manhattan that read:
"The Dallas Consortium's ongoing tactic of using the press to pressure us into changing our strategy in Dallas is highly unproductive. Even after our corrections to their previous false statements, they continue to go to the press, making inaccurate claims. Our decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store is final and we are moving forward as such."
They went on to say that is it complicated…yada, yada, yada…you’re screwed…blah, blah, blah…and something about hard feelings from a 10-year process, during which they didn’t even own Neiman’s!
I want to hire the world’s smallest violin to play for them.
I know the situation for Brick-and-Mortar retailers is difficult in our modern age. It is also evident that shopping patterns have changed over the years and migrated out to the suburbs. But the downtown building was the very heart and soul of Neiman Marcus. For many years the buyers and executives occupied the floors just above the store. A number of my friends even worked there at one point.
In my younger years I worked at Macy’s at Dallas Galleria and was recruited by the downtown store to come be a sales associate there. I was offered the job, but we could never come to terms on the sharing of the retiring employees’ book of business, so I didn’t take the post. My destiny was in the software business, but that is a story for another day.
I fear the worst for their headquarters in that may not be well suited for other purposes. That is akin to a death sentence for any historic structure. Buildings are meant to be occupied. Without people coming in and out, it is already dead.
Source:
Neiman Marcus makes final decision to close Downtown Dallas flagship store on March 31