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Saks Fifth Avenue plans to close its location at The Fashion Mall at Keystone, as part of a larger plan to redevelop a portion of the upscale shopping center.
The store is expected to close at an unspecified time later this year. It will be a significant shift for the Simon Property Group-owned mall, where Saks has operated its 120,000-square-foot store since 2003, when it replaced a vacant Jacobson’s store after the Jacobson’s chain went bankrupt.
Simon has not shared specific details of the planned overhaul, but said Thursday the redevelopment will feature a “curated selection of highly sought-after retail brands,” along with first-in-market dining and entertainment, an outdoor plaza and new shopping space. The project will be focused on the southeastern section of the property, but the company did not disclose if other stores will be affected by the effort.
“Simon is leading the evolution of today’s retail landscape with the strategic transformation of key properties across the country into best-in-class lifestyle destinations,” Mark Silvestri, president of development at Simon, said in written remarks. “The redevelopment further solidifies The Fashion Mall at Keystone’s dedication to providing a stand-out retail, lifestyle and community-focused destination for the region.”
Saks is the second-largest anchor at the Fashion Mall after Nordstrom, which occupies 130,000 square feet. Crate and Barrel is the third biggest store, at 33,000 square feet.
“Saks Fifth Avenue has decided to close our store in Indianapolis, Indiana,” a Saks spokesperson said in an email. “These decisions are never easy, but they are the right ones for the company. We are committed to treating every associate with respect and fairness throughout the process; all eligible associates will receive appropriate employment separation packages.”
New York City-based Saks operates 39 full-service stores in North America, down from more than 50 a decade ago. The Keystone store is the chain’s only store in Indiana, with the closest other Saks found in Chicago and Columbus, Ohio.
The 157-year-old retailer also operates nearly 100 Saks Off Fifth off-price stores, but none of those are in Indiana.
Hudson’s Bay Co., or HBC, which acquired Saks in 2013 for almost $3 billion, has been struggling with debt problems. Bloomberg reported in January that HBC, the oldest company in North America, was trying to refinance a $1.3 billion loan.
The Fashion Mall is the sixth largest shopping center in central Indiana, according to IBJ data. The 716,000-square-foot mall features more than 40 stores and has 3,350 parking spaces, including two garages.
The mall was developed by the Leonard L. Larman Co. in the early 1970s, but Larman lost financial backing from his bank partner and was forced to sell the property to Duke & Associates in 1978. Duke expanded the mall from 60,000 square feet to 600,000 square feet before selling it in 1987 to a British pension fund, which sold it to Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc. in 1997. Simon continued to expand the mall, with the last significant upgrades coming in 2012.
The city’s Department of Metropolitan Development said it has not yet received any filings for a project at the mall.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had incorrect information about the developer of the mall. We have updated the story.
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This is not a loss but rather a win for the mall.
We have a mall?
That’s the way Simon is spinning it.
I wonder what will take its place.
“a “curated selection of highly sought-after retail brands,””
I wonder what the article says…
funny VK…
This is a blow for discount luxury shoppers who love Saks sales, but ultimately it will upgrade the mall with more full-priced luxury brand stores. It’s the right business decision for both Saks and Simon.
I just cannot understand how it is that Indianapolis cannnot support department stores. Is everybody going to Chicago for upscale shopping? It’s not a surprise that Saks will be closing because it never seems to be busy and finding a sales associate is difficult. What’s the story? I love to go to a mall where I can feel the clothing and check the hand of the fabric and the quality of the stitching. This is crazy. When people come in from out of town and stay at one of the lovely upscale hotels, who’s going to tell them that there’s no place to shop downtown? They have to get into their car and drive 10 miles up to the Fashion Mall where there may only be one department store left. Ugh. I was working downtown when Circle Center was being constructed…loved to walk the 2 blocks to go to Nordstrom or Parisian /Carson Pirie Scott, grab lunch at one of the many food stands or have a nice lunch at PF Changs or the great Italian restaurant on the corner of Maryland and Meridian. Why can we not support them. I certainly did more than my share to support them.
Many people don’t care to deal with parking to just go feel the fabric, when if they shop the brands or store regularly – they know their size and order online. If they don’t like it its very easy to return or send back these days. All of them are struggling Saks, Macy’s, Express, Von Maur. Couple variables impacting it; death of the mall culture and experience; Cost of goods have skyrocketed, and for those in this higher-end category – they would much rather go to a smaller more local boutiques to support those owners, independent brands. Our Saks wasn’t receiving the coveted new release items anyway.
Lamenting the long-gone downtown department store is, alas, nostalgia for a bygone age.
I’m old enough to remember that a trip downtown to the Big Department Store was an important outing…to buy new clothes or to get portraits made and to eat in the department store restaurant.
But that world is gone.
Fairly certain Simon will replace them with something equal or even better. And super excited for what Hendricks has in store for the redevelopment of Circle Centre downtown. What Simon allowed to happen to that mall is a travesty.
Barbara, there are not many folks like you left any more. Especially people who had the ability to go to work and take a lunch long enough to include shopping.
Departments stores are going to continue slowly dying and we’ll see them replaced by more discount outlets (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Burlington, etc.). When it comes to retail clothing, boutiques are likely to continue to exist, but they will need an abundance of storefronts with smaller footprints. One of the best things that could happen to Downtown right now is a strategy to rapidly increase the rate of population growth and increase the number of smaller storefronts at the street level.
“This is crazy. When people come in from out of town and stay at one of the lovely upscale hotels, who’s going to tell them that there’s no place to shop downtown? ”
Um, unless these people live under a rock, wherever they come from also probably is witnessing its downtown shopping going down the tubes. Only a few mega-cities still have luxury department stores downtown, and even those cities have kissed a lot of that goodbye in the last few years thanks to COVID and riots. Chicago’s Mile isn’t so Magnificent these days. Nothing crazy about it. The model city you’re comparing Indy to no longer exists.
Your description of Indianapolis in 1997 shows remarkable attention to detail. Do you ever offer a similar level of attention to detail when you visit other cities? Do you visit other cities?
Well that Saks store was awful, so good for the mall. Their service was atrocious compared to Nordstrom, and they typically priced the exact same items for $20-$100 more than Nordstrom.
It seems that Saks alienated many of their male customers as far as what they offered. I am not looking for a pair of $1200 Gucci hightops and it appears other folks weren’t either.
That store had been diminished to almost nothing last time I was there. It used to occupy all three levels but the top levels was basically vacant and the other levels were like a ghost town. Surprised it didn’t close sooner. That whole end of the mall needs to be addressed because of little traffic down there. The other side seems to be doing pretty well.
Barbara B. I to have often wondered why an Indianapolis can’t support department stores. Other cities that are comparable to Indianapolis in population like Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati and Nashville, TN for example can support them. I understand the convenience of shopping online but like you it’s nice to touch or try on the clothing. I believe there will come a time as in everything repetition will happen; people will want to shop in person rather than online. There is nothing like human contact over just looking at a screen.
A bizarre statement to make. Cincinnati and Columbus have more dead malls than you can shake a stick at. As far as I know, the only malls that have fully closed in Indy are Eastgate (really more of a mini mall even at its peak), and Lafayette Square, which only closed because delusional city leaders catered to a huckster. Sure, Washington Square isn’t doing great, nor is Circle Centre, and Glendale needed a total reinvention, but that’s still better than most cities comparable to Indy. Having Simon’s HQ in the city probably helps.
Even the luxury brands have been struggling, although not as much as Penneys and Macy’s. Nordstrom has been shrinking its portfolio for several years, Neiman Marcus re-emerged from Chapter 11, and Lord & Taylor closed completely.
This article says Simon developed this mall in 1973, but I am positive that Duke Realty was the developer.
Duke was the developer then sold to the UK postal union pension fund which then sold to Simon. Somebody @ the IBJ should spend a little time fact checking particularly when the story involves two of the biggest names in Indy retail.
Sorry Brian. We apologize for the error. Duke wasn’t the original developer. It was the Leonard L. Larman Co. We have updated the story with more information and a link to a story we did about the history of Keystone at the Crossing. Thanks for reading.
The acquisition of the Fashion Mall by Simon in 1997 was a major event for the city, because it doomed Circle Centre. Simon would always prefer premier tenants put their regional store on the north side rather than downtown.
Saks was basically the hollow shell of a store last I was there. Department stores are struggling almost everywhere. Indy does not have as many wealthy consumers as many other cities, and also the culture in Indy is not about flashy, conspicuous displays of wealth as is the case in some other cities.