Michigan Saks To Go Off Fifth

Saks Inc. (Birmingham, Ala.) has announced plans to “reposition” its Saks Fifth Avenue store in Fairlane Town Center (Dearborn, Mich.). The 90,000-square-foot store, which currently houses both a Saks Fifth Avenue and an Off 5th outlet store, will become exclusively Off 5th beginning in mid-January 2002.

“We will continue to offer our metropolitan Detroit-area customers the traditional Saks Fifth Avenue experience . . . through our recently expanded and renovated 160,000-square-foot full-line store in the Somerset Mall in Troy,” said Christina Johnson, president and ceo of Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises, the New York-based division of Saks Inc.

The company operates another Off 5th store in nearby Auburn Hills, plus – from its Saks Inc. stable — a Parisian in Livonia and several Younkers throughout the state. The company said all of these stores will remain open.

The announced repositioning, which has the effect of closing another Saks Fifth Avenue nameplate store, comes a week after the retailer's announced intention to open a new 80,000-square-foot Saks Fifth Avenue in Richmond, Va. The store will be part of Stony Point Fashion Park, a 680,000 square foot open-air fashion center being developed by Taubman Centers, Inc. The store is scheduled to open with the center in the fall of 2003. It will be the second Saks Fifth Avenue store in the state of Virginia. There's also a 120,000-square-foot Saks in Tyson's Corner, in McLean.

Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises currently runs 62 Saks Fifth Avenue stores and 50 Saks Off 5th stores. Parent company Saks Inc. operates about 350 stores in some 40 states – under the Parisian, Younkers, Carson Pirie Scott, McRae's, Proffitt's, Herberger's, Boston Store and Bergner's nameplates — through its Saks Department Store Group, mostly regional chains concentrated in the Southeast and Midwest.