Wednesday, December 19, 2012
The Saks Fifth Avenue in Highland Park will close on Dec. 31, which begs the question: What should replace Renaissance Place's anchor store?
The countdown before Christmas and New Year's Eve has officially begun, but the passing days mean more than the approaching end of the holiday season. It also marks the approaching end of the store that has been anchoring downtown Highland Park's Renaissance Place since it opened years ago: Saks Fifth Avenue. The store announced in September it would close on Dec. 31. Nearby M Restaurant recently shuttered as well. Though few details have been revealed about what's next for Renaissance Place, the real estate company that owns it may be considering placing a mix of independently owned boutiques as well as larger national chains in the Saks space. Developers took a similar approach to the old Borders location on Central Avenue. Some Highland…
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The Renaissance Place anchor store will shut its doors in Highland Park at the end of the holiday shopping season. The city and developers are already working to find new retailers.
The Saks Fifth Avenue in Renaissance Place will close at the end of December, Crain's Chicago Business reports. The 49,000 square-foot store opened in 2000 in downtown Highland Park. Though no reason has been reported yet for the store's closing, it follows a trend of Saks closures over the past decade. The Saks location at Skokie's Westfield Old Orchard mall closed in 2005, according to Crain's, which also points out that after the Highland Park store closes, the only remaining full-line Saks store in the Chicago area is its flagship location on Michigan Avenue. Shortly after the news was announced, the asset manager for Renaissance Place issued a press release outlining its plan to deal with the loss of its anchor store. “We have enjoyed…
Friday, April 1, 2011
Former Plan Commissioner wants to focus on repairing and maintaining city's infrastructure.
Many politicians can pinpoint a memory that caused them to seek public office. Typically, these are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington moments where the citizen takes on City Hall, walks away victorious and is inspired to do more. City Council candidate Anthony Blumberg had a similar turning point years ago when he went to Plan Commission meetings to fight against the development of Renaissance Place. He worried about displacing residents who lived in that area of Green Bay Road and wondered about the logic of anchoring a shopping development with a Saks Fifth Avenue store when clothing sales were plummeting. "You can see how successful we were in preventing it from coming in," Blumberg said with a grin. Though he lost the battle, Blumberg was …
David Greenberg
4:00 pm on Thursday, December 20, 2012
Why is more parking, closer to businesses it'll serve lunacy? more ›