What a difference 16 months and one global pandemic make.
Neiman Marcus, the anchor tenant at Manhattan’s glitzy Shops & Restaurants at Hudson Yards, announced in court filings Thursday that they will vacate the facility. The Dallas-based store occupies 250,000 square feet on the top three floors of the mall, roughly one-fourth of the entire enormous space. The luxury goods shop filed for bankruptcy in early May.
Two stores in Florida, one in Ft. Lauderdale and the other in Palm Beach, plus one in Belleview, Washington, are also closing down.
A spokesman for Neiman Marcus told CNBC that “these store closures will help ensure the continued long-term success of our business and underscores our unrelenting focus on providing unparalleled luxury experiences and engagement.”
He added, “a physical location in Hudson Yards is no longer an ideal space for us given the preponderance of restaurants and future office space in that mall.”
In March 2019, the opening of the “vertical shopping experience” at Hudson Yards, alongside the new arts facility The Shed, interactive staircase-sculpture The Vessel, and on-ramp to the pre-existing High Line Park, was a major celebrity-drawing social event. It also drew criticism for its radically closed-off architecture. (“It’s something Clueless’s Cher might have dreamed up, a little slice of Dubai in New York,” V.F.’s Kenzie Bryant reported from the opening night soirée.)
As New York’s retailers navigate a cautious reopening in the age of coronavirus, the bruised Shops have adapted to a “touchless experience,” have posted guidelines in collaboration with Mount Sinai Health System, and boast curbside pickup options on their website.
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