Saks Global, which owns the Neiman Marcus department store brand, as of early morning on March 24 had yet to respond to several inquiries from Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal attempting to confirm that it has reversed itself and will be keeping open the Neiman Marcus store at The Westchester in White Plains.
However, the Business Journal has received indications that the company has made a decision to keep the store open instead of closing it in May. These include the fact that the White Plains store no longer appears in a list of stores to be closed by Saks Global that was first released on March 6. The only Neiman Marcus stores now shown in the list as set for imminent closing are the Copley Plaza location in Boston, Ala Moana in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the store at Topanga in Canyon Park, California.
When Saks Global issued a store list a couple of weeks ago the list made it clear that the White Plains store would be closed as part of the company closing a number of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus locations in the U.S. as it reorganizes in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
On March 17, Saks Global announced that it has secured access to an additional $300 million of the $1.75 billion in committed capital following approval of its five-year business plan by an ad hoc group of the company’s senior secured bondholders and the achievement of other key milestones.
“We have made significant progress over the past two months as we work to position Saks Global for the future, quickly stabilizing our business, improving inventory flow and investing in our transformation,” said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, CEO of Saks Global on March 17. “As we continue to secure a bright future for Saks Global, guided by our relentless devotion to the luxury customer, we are focused on delivering an expertly curated assortment and personalized service across Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.”
The company said that its store portfolio was being optimized to create “a more productive footprint comprising the best-performing and most desirable locations in markets with a high concentration of luxury customers.” The Westchester in White Plains has from its beginning been considered a destination for “luxury customers.”
