Saks to close Richmond store, laying off 40 workers

Saks Global Enterprises plans to close its Saks Fifth Avenue store at Stony Point Fashion Park in Richmond between April 11 and April 30, and 40 employees will lose their jobs, according to a notice sent to the state Tuesday.

In a news release Tuesday, the New York-headquartered luxury retailer announced that eight Saks Fifth Avenue stores and one Neiman Marcus store would be closed as part of a store footprint refining process “to focus on profitable locations with the highest growth potential.” A majority of standalone Fifth Avenue Club personal styling suites will also close.

In late January, the company said it would close most of its Saks OFF 5th retail locations and remaining Neiman Marcus Last Call stores to focus on luxury retail and full-price sales.

Additionally, the company said it plans to transition its home decor shop, Horchow, to Neiman Marcus’ website starting Feb. 19.

Saks will ask a U.S. bankruptcy judge to approve the nine store closings at a Friday court hearing, the company said in a court document filed Tuesday.

Saks filed for bankruptcy protection last month in one of the largest retail collapses since COVID, barely a year after a deal intended to create a luxury powerhouse brought Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus under the same roof.

The other Saks Fifth Avenue stores that will close are in Birmingham, Alabama; Columbus, Ohio; East Rutherford, New Jersey; New Orleans; Philadelphia; Phoenix; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Neiman Marcus store that will close is in Boston.

The employees losing their jobs due to the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Richmond closing are not members of a union and do not have bumping rights, according to a notice sent to the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, or Virginia Works, in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Most of the employees losing their jobs are sales associates and beauty specialists. A store director, a style adviser and two tailors are also among the employees being laid off.

Neither Second Horizon Capital, a Florida-based real estate investment company that owns Stony Point Fashion Park, nor JLL, the Chicago-based professional services firm that manages the 660,000-square-foot shopping center, immediately responded to a request for comment.

Stony Point Fashion Park opened in 2003. Its other anchor department store is Dillard’s.

In 2022, the outdoor mall was sold to Second Horizon after its previous owner, Starwood Property Trust, defaulted on a loan, and Stony Point was in receivership for two years before the sale. Starwood also previously owned Norfolk’s MacArthur Center, which the city of Norfolk purchased in 2023.

Virginia has another Saks Fifth Avenue store at Tysons Galleria, which also has a Neiman Marcus store.