Two Big Businesses Go Bust in Buckhead
Buckhead's Lenox Marketplace shopping center will lose two of its anchors in the coming months. Pirch, an award winning, interactive kitchen and bath appliance showroom, which opened in the center in late 2014, will close its 27,243 square foot Buckhead store effective September 30th. The store, while cool and different, never really caught on in the Atlanta market the way it has in the chain's home territory of southern California. Store sources indicate that the showroom will cease operations September 30th but that the store will continue to accept and deliver orders from its regional distribution center through November 30. As of now, there is no word on if/when there will be any sale of the showroom's demo appliances and fixtures.
The Lenox Marketplace store will be just one of the stores Pirch plans to shutter as it overhauls operations according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news. The company, known for its in-store chefs, coffee shops and try-before-you-buy ethos, is refocusing its efforts on its four profitable stores on its home turf of southern California. Private equity firm L Catterton, which was formed in January of 2016, by "Catterton, the leading consumer-focused private equity firm, LVMH, the world leader in high-quality products, and Groupe Arnault, the family holding company of Bernard Arnault," is the primary backer of the Pirch concept.
The company has already closed its showroom in Austin, Texas, just a few months after its May opening. The company has also closed its stores in Paramus, New Jersey and in New York's SoHo neighborhood. Pirch locations in Dallas and Chicago are currently scheduled to follow a similar timeline as the Atlanta store and are planned to close September 30th. Last Fall, Pirch claimed its stores averaged an estimated $3,000 in annual sales per square foot, which is hard to believe but still a far cry from Apple's estimated $5,500 sales per square foot. The company stated, “We remain confident that our unique business model will be successful on a more focused scale, and we are committed to delivering on our founding mission of providing customers exciting new ways to shop for the home through our innovative multibrand immersion experience.”
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| This grand staircase was one of many costly features at the Pirch showroom in Buckhead |
Pirch's neighbor, Neiman Marcus Last Call Studio, which also opened in the center in late 2014, will close in January, likely in hopes of selling merchandise at higher prices leading up to the holiday shopping season. The 14,343 square foot store, which was an extension of the "Last Call" concept, stocked nearly 100% merchandise exclusively produced for outlet sale and not merchandise that might have ever come from a full-line Neiman Marcus department store. Shoppers were not impressed with the faux outlet concept and its closure comes as little surprise. The store had only ten reviews on Yelp.com with an overall 2 star rating.
Neiman Marcus is in the midst of a restructuring that led to layoffs of 225 employees in July, including at least one executive level manager at their Lenox Square store. The company also said in July that it would be "assessing the future" of its Last Call division. In addition to the Last Call Studio closure in Atlanta, the company confirmed yesterday that it will close eight other Last Call stores: Philadelphia Premium Outlets, Potomac Mills (Virginia), Arizona Mills, Gurnee Mills (Illinois), Livermore Premium (California), Arundel Mills (Maryland), Philadelphia Mills and Great Lakes Crossing (Michigan) and Horchow Finale in Plano, Texas. The closures represent about 25% of the company's outlet stores.
The closings will leave Neiman Marcus with 28 Last Call locations including one at Sugarloaf Mills in Lawrenceville. The company will also continue to operate 42 full-line department stores including their lone Atlanta area store at Lenox Square in Buckhead. In comparison, Nordstrom, seen by many as the "best in class" when it comes to department store outlets, operates more than 220 Rack stores while Saks has more than 120 Off Fifth locations. Bloomingdale's, the upscale division of Macy's, entered the outlet game with Bloomingdale's "The Outlet" in 2010. The company has since expanded the concept to a total of 18 locations, none thus far in Georgia. The Last Call closures could present an opportunity for Bloomingdale's to cherry pick locations like Atlanta where they are without a presence.
Lenox Marketplace has been plagued by issues even before its 1999 opening. Located near the corner of Roxboro Road and Peachtree Road, across from Phipps Plaza, Lenox Marketplace was developed in 1998/1999 by The Sembler Company for Jamestown. In 1997, plans for the project included a giant IMAX movie theater and potentially a 30,000 square foot Virgin Megastore. Despite the IMAX theater being reportedly confirmed and the Virgin store "close," neither ever opened in the project.
Norcross based Uptons, a department store, was later announced to be one the center's anchors, joining Publix, Galyan's and Target. All Uptons closed in 1999 and the Buckhead store as well as stores planned for Mall of Georgia Crossing in Gwinnett County, Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville and Fayette Pavillion in Fayetteville all become dekor, a new home appliances and furnishings store started by former Home Depot employees. Dekor opened in late 2000 in Buckhead but closed in late 2001 amidst company wide cash flow problems and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. A Peachtree facing Starbucks Coffee that was essentially an amenity of the dekor store closed when the appliance store closed.
Subsequent anchors have not fared much better.
The entire Galyan's Trading Company chain was sold to Dick's Sporting Goods in 2004 and its Buckhead store was promptly rebranded and stripped of its artsy metal bear logo on Peachtree and the three story climbing wall inside the store.
Columbia, South Carolina based Edens (then Edens & Avant) purchased the approximately 400,000 square foot center from Jamestown for an undisclosed amount in late 2004.
American Signature Furniture opened in a portion of the former dekor space in 2005 but was closed by the end of 2008. Filene's Basement, then a division of Retail Ventures, which also owned American Signature Furniture, additionally opened in a portion of the former dekor space. The store opened in 2003 but closed in early 2012, after the company liquidated following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Urban Active, a fitness facility backed by Under Armour, was sold to LA Fitness in 2012 and continues to operate but under the LA Fitness branding.
Other closures in the center include Ali-Oli, a tapas restaurant, Verizon, which relocated to a Selig's Buckhead Square II, Buffalo Wild Wings, which claimed they were moving to south Buckhead in 2014 but never did, and most recently, Staples.
Furniture retailer Ethan Allen opened in the former Staples this past July, marking the return of the retailer to Buckhead since it closed in the former Sports Authority shopping center nearby over five years ago.
Are you surprised by the closures at Lenox Marketplace? What would you like to see open in place of Neiman Marcus Last Call Studio and Pirch at Lenox Marketplace? What is your favorite off-price/outlet store?
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