Lord & Taylor closes Manhattan store for good

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Jan 4, 2019

Lord & Taylor’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue has officially closed for good. 

 
The 11-storey building closed on Wednesday afternoon after 104-years of business and one last major blowout sale over the Holiday season leaving to store virtually empty. 
 
The space was sold to WeWork in 2017, a space-leasing company, for over $850 million.

Department store-owner, Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Co., announced back in June that it would sell up to ten Lord & Taylor stores, including the flagship Manhattan location, as its quarterly loss widened following declines in its European and Saks Off 5th divisions.
 
The department store chain, which equally owns Saks Fifth Avenue, has been hit from the reality of online sales, leaving a number of its brick-and-mortar locations with little options. 
 
Still, Lord & Taylor, which was founded in 1826 and picked up by the Hudson’s Bay in 2012, continues to operate 45 other locations, though its footprint is only expected to continue to shrink. 
 
Last year, HBC equally sold its unprofitable online brand Gil.
 
In the last reported quarter, the department store chain reported a wider loss of $164 million CAD, or 69 Canadian cents a share.