The deal to close the outlet at International Plaza by July 1 clears the way to convert the space to an upscale furniture store.
By MARK ALBRIGHT
Published June 3, 2004
Lord & Taylor has agreed to close its store in International Plaza by July 31, costing 59 people their jobs.
The deal to turn the building back to mall operator Taubman Centers Inc. clears the way for most of the space to be converted into an upscale Robb & Stucky furniture store that would open as early as the Christmas season.
Clearance sales will begin soon at Lord & Taylor, which is closing as part of a dramatic downsizing of the New York retailer, confirmed Sharon Bateman, spokeswoman for May Department Stores Inc. May is trying to revive the fortunes of its New York-based high-end fashion division by closing 32 of its 86 Lord & Taylor stores in 11 states and concentrating the chain in the Midwest and Northeast.
Lord & Taylor has remained in business in Tampa but lost many of the designer labels it had been stocking before the announcement of the cutback.
Lord & Taylor landlords have been scrambling to find replacement tenants to fill gaping holes in their malls since the restructuring was announced last summer. The pickings of department stores have been slim, given the economy, the number of empty stores being put on the market and the ever-shrinking number of department store nameplates.
Taubman was unable to find a department store to fill the entire 160,000-square-foot space at International Plaza.
Robb & Stucky, a Fort Myers chain with sales of $230-million in 2003, will rent the ground floor and half of the second floor. The furniture retailer also will close a Clearwater store less than half as big that has been its only outlet in the Tampa Bay area.
Taubman leasing agents say they have several prospects interested in taking over the second-floor space which would be reconfigured into a single storefront facing the mall's center court.
They said Gucci, which has committed to opening a designer boutique at International Plaza this year, is not one of them.
