Downtown Seattle’s Saks OFF fifth will shut this month, including one other chunk of empty area to the town’s beleaguered retail core.
The Westlake Heart retailer, a by-product of Saks Fifth Avenue, posted indicators this week that mentioned all gross sales are closing and that July 20 would be the closing day.
Camilla Koon, who works downtown, mentioned she was purchasing Monday when an worker on the register advised her “as of at the moment, all gross sales are closing as a result of the shop is closing.”
Saks didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. It was not clear when staff had been notified.
“I’m going there a few instances a month and now it’s simply one other massive empty location downtown,” Koon mentioned. “It’s nice to have Nordstrom Rack nonetheless, however so many different shops are closing.”
Saks’ closure will comply with different main retailers, together with Nike, The North Face and Vans, which have all pulled out of the realm. The North Face and Vans are owned by VF Corp.
Brookfield Properties, which owns Westlake Heart, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Public security considerations and sagging retail gross sales are explanations which have trailed these shuttered shops, however the metropolis has additionally been grappling with a sluggish restoration in foot visitors.
Day by day workplace employee foot visitors ranges have reached about half of what they had been earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the Downtown Seattle Affiliation. Tourism fared properly in 2023, when Seattle had 3.5 million out-of-town guests, probably the most since 2019 when 4.1 million folks visited.
However there’s nonetheless an absence of Seattle-area residents visiting downtown. In December, about 426,000 individuals who stay inside 10 miles of the retail core got here downtown, based on the DSA. That’s roughly 360,000 fewer folks than in December 2019.
It’s not all closures downtown. Japan-based retailer Uniqlo opened on the bottom ground of the previous Bon Marché/Macy’s constructing final yr, and the outside clothes model Himali opened its first Seattle retailer close to Westlake Heart this yr.
The dad or mum firm of Saks just lately signed a deal to purchase Neiman Marcus Group for $2.65 billion, with monetary assist from Amazon, which is able to maintain a minority stake. Neiman Marcus Group owns Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman shops.
