As of Monday, the city of Dallas possesses the deed for a small piece of land beneath the Neiman Marcus flagship — the center of a dispute that Saks Global blamed for its plans to close the store, according to a Monday statement from a consortium of business leaders and city officials.
On Wednesday, members of the consortium, including Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, will meet with Ian Putnam, CEO of Saks Global Properties & Investments, according to the statement.
But on Tuesday a Saks Global spokesperson told Retail Dive by email that “a meeting was not confirmed” and accused the civic leaders of “using the press to pressure us into changing our strategy in Dallas.”
“Even after our corrections to their previous false statements, they continue to go to the press, making inaccurate claims,” the Saks Global spokesperson said by email. “Our decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store is final and we are moving forward as such.”
Last week, after the consortium announced a resolution to the lease dispute, Saks Global indicated that a meeting was in the works, but said its plans to close the store were unchanged. That surprised members of the consortium and many observers. When Saks Global first announced that the store would close March 31, the company said it was because it had “received a notice from a landlord to terminate our occupancy.”
“This location has been a beloved institution in the community for more than a century, and we are disappointed to be losing a piece of Neiman Marcus history,” the company also said at the time.
On Tuesday, Saks Global said that “this is a far more complicated situation than what the public is being led to believe and has been going on for more than a decade,” and didn’t immediately respond to a request for more details.
“While we had been willing to hear the Consortium’s perspective, a meeting was not confirmed,” the Saks Global spokesperson said. “We have made several attempts to be connected directly to the City Manager, as an official representative of the City of Dallas, and we were denied.”
Jennifer Scripps, president and CEO of stewardship organization Downtown Dallas, Inc., referred to previous statements from Saks Global indicating that the ground lease dispute was out of Saks’ control and said that the matter “has now officially been resolved.”
“We are thrilled that, in the words of Saks Global CEO Marc Metrick, they see their recent acquisition of Neiman Marcus as being about ‘growing’ and ‘not about shrinking,’” she said. “Saks Global executives have also said the decision to close the Downtown store was not about operations. Together, we will ensure Neiman Marcus continues to grow and thrive in Downtown Dallas.”
Saks Global didn’t immediately return a request for clarification on some of the apparently conflicting statements from recent days. The Saks Global spokesperson did reiterate that its Neiman Marcus operation is about growth, but said that would be centered in nearby NorthPark Center mall.
“We are committed to growth, and are focused on Neiman Marcus’ future in Dallas,” the spokesperson said. “That future is at the NorthPark store, where we are planning a $100 million renovation.”