Saks Fifth Avenue is leaving King Street, and a discount fashion chain aimed at younger shoppers is moving into its space.
The luxury department store will close its downtown Charleston store by July 17, Saks spokeswoman Julia Bentley said Monday, according to The Post and Courier. Forever 21, the Los Angeles-based clothing retailer, plans to open in the 33,000-square-foot space at the corner of King and Market streets by the end of the year, the newspaper reported.
It will be Forever 21’s first store in South Carolina, the Charleston City Paper reported.
“The Charleston store didn’t meet profitability standards,” Bentley told the City Paper.
Saks’ reasons
Saks Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Sadove said the decision came after the company weighed the profitability and potential of the Charleston store, which opened in 1996, The Post and Courier reported.
“The planned closing of our Charleston store is consistent with our focus of utilizing our resources in our most productive stores,” Sadove said in a written statement.
New York-based Saks operates 53 Saks Fifth Avenue stores. It previously announced that it plans to close its stores in Portland, Oregon, and San Diego in July.
The store’s 60 employees will be offered transfers or severance packages, according to the company. Bentley said a clearance sale would start shortly and run until the store closes.
A lease with years to run
Saks’ lease on the King Street space runs through 2026, according to Erin Hopkins, marketing manager for The Beach Co., which developed the site for Saks. Hopkins told The Post and Courier the contract allows another business to take over the lease and that Forever 21 will need only minimal changes to the building.
Forever 21 operates 480 stores in the United States, plus locations in Canada, Puerto Rico, Korea and Japan, the newspaper reported. Its Charleston store will carry women’s, men’s and children’s clothing under five brands. The City Paper listed them as Twelve by Twelve, Heritage 1981, 21Men, Love 21 and HTG81.
“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to expand our business into Charleston and offer the latest fashion to the local community,” Forever 21 Executive Vice President Larry Meyer said in a written statement. “Additionally, we expect to create up to 150 new jobs at the Charleston location for the local community.”
What it means for King Street
When Saks opened nearly 15 years ago, Charleston Mayor Joe Riley described the arrival of a department store downtown as “almost an impossible dream,” The Post and Courier reported. Riley said the street continues to draw high-end businesses.
“King Street, since Saks came here, has become the most amazing and successful retail street in the Southeast and really is up there with New York, Chicago and San Francisco’s retail districts,” Riley said.
He said Forever 21 would broaden the street’s appeal.
“I think what Forever 21 does is bring younger shoppers,” Riley said. “I think it has wide appeal to the metro area which, of course, is what our main street is all about. It’s not just a place for our visitors, but a place where residents of the region can come.”
Ellen Berlin, owner of Berlins for Women and a fourth-generation clothier, told the newspaper she considered Saks a direct competitor because both stores drew resort customers, travelers who return to favorite shops during repeat visits. She said the closing came as little surprise, given some of Saks’ inventory decisions.
“I’m shocked about the new tenant. That’s for sure,” she said. But she said the change could help local stores. “It leaves more money on King Street,” Berlin said. “Those dollars will go somewhere else, and hopefully spread around to local merchants.”
Susan Lucas, who leads the King Street Marketing Group, said she expected Forever 21 to land farther up the street, closer to Urban Outfitters and similar stores, but “maybe lower King Street needs someone to fill in the gaps there.”
“It’s a little lower-end than Saks,” she said. “But everything is a little lower-end than Saks.”
Shoppers were split. Debbie Linton of Charlotte, shopping inside Saks on Monday morning, called it one of “only a few shops for the mid-life woman” and a reason to visit Charleston. Told who was moving in, she said: “Ugh. It’s all about the young people.”
