The landmark Dallas Neiman Marcus flagship is closing its doors after more than a century on Sept. 30 — laying off 67 employees in the luxury retailer’s home town.
The layoffs were disclosed in a government filing by parent company Saks Global – which filed for bankruptcy protection in January.
The positions being eliminated include sales associates, tailors and employees of the retailer’s posh restaurant, Zodiac Room.
The nine-story Renaissance Revival tower at 1618 Main St. — which first opened in 1914 and housed the company’s headquarters until 2022 — employed more than 200 workers in better times, according to former employees.
The fact that it’s whittled down to 67, said one veteran, is a “reflection of the lack of inventory, lack of [customer] traffic and the realization the store wasn’t worthy of further investment.”
Shortly after Saks Global acquired Neiman Marcus for $2.6 billion in 2024, the company announced plans to close the Dallas store – only to reverse its decision after local pols pressured the company to keep it open.
Saks Global blamed the closure at the time on a bizarre situation involving a co-owner of the building who controlled the land under its escalator bank and who declined to renew its lease with the retailer.
The company’s far more successful NorthPark Dallas location, which has been earmarked for a $100 million renovation, will be the only remaining Neiman Marcus in Dallas.
Some store employees affected by the layoffs will be offered transfers to NorthPark, the company said.
The Dallas store “is not profitable, and so I think that (the) customer has decided where she or he wants to access the Neiman Marcus brand,” Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chief executive of Saks Global told The Dallas Morning News when he first announced the store closure on June 2.
The NorthPark store does more than 10 times the sales of the downtown site, according to the report.
Neiman Marcus’ departure is a blow to struggling downtown Dallas, which is losing a slew of big corporations, including AT&T and the Dallas Stars hockey team which are both relocating to Plano.
The Dallas Mavericks are also leaving the American Airlines Center.
It’s not clear what will happen to the downtown store building. Saks Global is among several owners of the real estate, the company said.