Striking It Rich's

Federated Department Stores Inc. (Cincinnati) has signed a letter of intent to construct a Rich's store at the Arbor Place mall in western Atlanta, pending approval by Federated's board of directors.

Federated unveiled those plans at its annual shareholder meeting Friday. The new Rich's will be a two-level, full-line department store, excluding furniture, with 140,000 square feet of space. Construction is slated to begin in late 2003 and be completed in fall 2004.

“In building our new Rich's store at Arbor Place, we are recognizing the continued growth of the Douglas county area of Atlanta and responding to numerous requests from customers in the area,” said Ron Klein, chairman and ceo of Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's (RLG).

Federated's RLG division is based in Atlanta and operates 77 stores in the central and southeastern U.S., including eight in the Atlanta area. The division's 2001 annual sales totaled nearly $2.1 billion.

Federated operates more than 460 stores in 34 states, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy's, Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus and Rich's. It also operates macys.com and Bloomingdale's By Mail.