Lord & Taylor, New York-based division of May Department Stores Co. (St. Louis), has backed out of plans to open a 138,000-square-foot store at the Las Vegas Fashion Show mall. The store was due to debut in early 2004.
Lord & Taylor was projected to become the eighth anchor tenant at Fashion Show, a shopping center on the Las Vegas strip owned by the Rouse Co. (Columbia, Md.). Instead, a May spokeswoman said Wednesday her company has postponed its plans.
“Construction has stopped at the Lord & Taylor store at the Fashion Show, ” she said. “Our plans are uncertain at this time.”
May spokeswoman Sharon Bateman would not reveal when construction stopped or when it may resume, nor would she explain her company's reasons for the move. However, she said May has not stopped work at any of the 11 other branded department stores it plans to open around the nation this year, including a Lord & Taylor store in Miami.
Fashion Show vp, general manager Scott Freshwater said a conversation with May officials confirmed Bateman's comments, adding he was told, “The opening date is being re-evaluated.”
When Rouse opened the first phase of its planned $1 billion Fashion Show expansion in November 2002, company executives said Lord & Taylor would move into the site formerly occupied by Dillard's in October 2003. Freshwater now says Lord & Taylor's scheduled Las Vegas debut recently had been pushed back to spring 2004.