Lord & Taylor will end its 104-year run with a massive sale and just two holiday windows

Photo courtesy of Lord & Taylor

At the beginning of next year, Lord & Taylor will close its Fifth Avenue flagship after a 104-year run. Owner Hudson’s Bay Co. sold the 676,000-square-foot Italian Renaissance building to WeWork for $850 million a year ago in an attempt to keep the department store brand afloat. With just a few months left at their storied location, Lord & Taylor will launch on Thursday a final “store closing” sale that will last through the holidays, according to the Post. And speaking of the holidays, they’ve also decided that instead of their normal six window displays between 38th and 39th Streets, they’ll only decorate two this holiday season.

The original plan was that WeWork (now Manhattan’s largest private office tenant) would relocate its global headquarters to the building but leave Lord & Taylor with 105,000 square feet. Hudson Bay’s stock price fell by more than a third between 2016 and 2017, and after the building sale, they continued to struggle to maintain profitability, leading to the decision to entirely close their flagship. “Exiting this iconic space reflects Lord & Taylor’s increasing focus on its digital opportunity and HBC’s commitment to improving profitability,” Hudson’s Bay said in a statement last year. Interestingly, the company will keep its 45 other Lord & Taylor locations open.

The decision to keep a small window display will “celebrate the Lord & Taylor brand and say ‘Thank You’ to New York for the decades of loyal business,” the company told the Post.

[Via NYP]

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Tags : 424 Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, WeWork

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