Posted 23 months ago in Trending
1 MIN READ -- Saks Off 5th is returning to State Street in the Loop, welcome news for a key Chicago retail strip.
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Posted 23 months ago in Trending
1 MIN READ -- Saks Off 5th is returning to State Street in the Loop, welcome news for a key Chicago retail strip.
Crain's Chicago Business reports that Saks Off 5th is returning to State Street in the Loop after closing in 2019. The discount apparel retailer said it's reopening a store at 6 S. State St, along with an additional location in Chicago. The move will lower the retail vacancy rate on State Street.
Saks Off 5th was among the bigger retail tenants on the Loop shopping strip, opening its 23,500-square-foot store there in 2016. Though the store has been closed since 2019, the chain, a unit of Toronto-based Hudson's Bay, still controls the space through its original long-term lease with the owner of the property, a joint venture between New York-based Madison Capital and Bethesda, Md.-based ASB Capital Management.
Five Below and shoe merchant JD Sports—Saks' neighbor to the south—have also opened stores on State Street recently. The Central Loop's retail vacancy rate was 23.1% at the end of 2021, down from 26.1% in mid-2021 but still well above 14.7% in 2019, according to Chicago retail brokerage Stone Real Estate.
But more retailers are seriously shopping for space on the street, said retail broker Luke Molloy, senior vice president in the Chicago office of CBRE. He's encouraged by the return of Saks.
"It's a sign that things are coming back," he said.
Read the entire piece at Crain's Chicago Business.
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